Almost Unreal
by The Fink
Summary: If Eric and Kim thought things would settle down after the events of bel Abis' return, they were wrong. There's a trio of bad guys, a new group of rangers, and that's just the start... [Book 5 in the Identiverse saga NOW COMPLETE]
1. Quantum Leap

Disclaimer: Characters and events don't belong to me, they're borrowed from BE without permission but no harm, no foul, no money made. The exceptions to this are Gina and Ben and assorted minor characters. Gina is mine, Ben belongs to Ekat and the assorted characters belong to themselves -- and many thank yous to you for allowing me to borrow you.

Canon Junkies please note: Because of the way the Identiverse has ended up there are considerable differences between this story and the two episodes 'Reinforcements From The Future I and II'. If I've changed something, it's almost certainly to get it to fit into the universe or to write out a plot hole or to be consistent.

Muchos gracias to Vanessa and Ree for beta'ing this for me. Also thanks to Chris for again spotting my deliberate mistake (!!) and offering me feedback. Lastly -- but by no means leastly -- many, many, MANY thanks to Gamine for being a truly wonderful human being. This story is for you.

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing.

~*~

Quantum Leap

Eric slowly made his way along the hallway, crutches clacking as he went.

"Sir, what are you doing here?" Gina enquired, spotting him.

"Walking along the hallway towards my office?" Eric suggested. "Avoiding total boredom? Looking for a mislaid CD?"

"Going against medical advice," said Gina dryly.

Eric managed a careful shrug. "That too," he admitted. Gina just rolled her eyes. "Gina, I do not do 'sitting down doing nothing'. Where's the harm in me doing a little light paper work?"

She just looked at him. "I'm pleading the fifth."

Eric sighed. "Look; I'm just in for an hour. Kim will be here then, she will collect me. What can I possibly do to myself in that time?"

"I'm pleading the fifth."

"You're as bad as Kim," Eric muttered.

Gina offered him a smile. "Is it really so hard to just sit back and let other people take care of you?"

Eric smiled ruefully. "I'm pleading the fifth."

Gina just shook her head. "Heaven help us, I suppose you're a responsible adult. I believe you're even old enough to vote, so I suppose you know what you're doing."

Eric winced. "I'm not that bad."

Gina smiled and headed away, calling over her shoulder, "I'm pleading the fifth."

"I'm ** not** that bad," Eric muttered, heading into his office. Then he reviewed the last year. "And I guess if I say that enough times I might start to believe it."

From his desk drawer he took out the holo-screen. This was the reason he was in -- and the only reason Kimberly had let him out of her sight. He needed to contact someone in the future. While Alex had been careful not to specify a direct time for Wes and Jen's return -- saying that time travel wasn't a completely exact science -- he had made it clear they would be back in three weeks.

It was now four weeks. There was still no sign of them.

No sooner had he set up the holo-screen than it flared into life.

"Where the hell have you been???" Lucas exclaimed. "I've been trying to get hold of you for hours."

Eric blinked. "I thought you could dial up any point in time you like."

"I can," Lucas retorted pointedly, "but it's time consuming and I've been through about eight days of your time period trying to get hold of you. Where've you been?"

"I've been off work," Eric admitted. "It's a long story," he added, stalling Lucas' next question.

Lucas looked faintly amused. "I figured it had to be." 

Eric wasn't entirely sure how to take that. "So you've been trying to get hold of me?"

"Yes. To tell you that something's come up here -- Wes and Jen aren't going to be back on schedule."

"Oh." There didn't seem to be a lot else Eric could say. Instead he asked, "So how long do I need to cover for Wes and Jen now?"

Somewhat to his alarm, Lucas shrugged a little. "We're not sure. Hopefully just another couple of days."

"What's going on?"

"It's a long story," Lucas answered wryly.

Eric just looked at Lucas for a few moments. "Do I need to start preparing for chaos here?"

"No -- no, it's all under control."

Eric snorted softly. "Something tells me that's what you people thought about Ransik and Biocon, too."

Lucas had the grace to look sheepish. "Good point." He sighed. "Well -- I have to get going. Unlike some people, I don't have time off to burn."

Eric snorted again. "I have my right leg in plaster. Believe me, I have not been off work by personal choice."

Lucas' eyes widened. "What?!"

Eric just shook his head. "It really is a long story and..." He glanced at his watch. "I'm going to be toast if I'm not outta here in the next five minutes!"

"Too late," said a voice from the doorway of the office, drawing Eric's attention away from the holo-screen. "You're already toast."

Lucas' jaw hinged open. "Is that Kim?" he squeaked.

Eric nodded. "It is -- and as she's supposed to be taking me to Silverhills Hospital so that I can get rid of this flaming plaster..."

"You," Kimberly finished, coming into the office properly, "had better get moving. Hi Lucas," she added.

"Um...hi." Lucas looked a little stunned. 

Eric wasn't sure he could blame the other man. Kimberly in full vent was quite something -- particularly if you happened to be in her sights, which, Eric realised uncomfortably, he was.

"C'mon you," Kimberly continued. "Unless you've been lying to me for the last three some odd weeks and you secretly enjoy..."

"I certainly don't." Eric snorted at the suggestion. "Any chance of me finishing my conversation with Lucas first?"

Kimberly grinned. "Make it quick."

"You're...um..." Lucas began.

"Part of that long story I mentioned," Eric replied. "What do you want me to do?"

Lucas blinked a few times and shook his head. "Um?"

"About Wes and Jen," Eric replied. "Do you want me to get in touch with you again?"

"Um...no..." Lucas shook his head, presumably to clear his thoughts. "No -- they won't be much longer than three days more."

"OK. Thanks Lucas."

Eric closed the connection and dismantled the holo-screen once more.

"Well?" Kimberly asked.

"Not well at all," Eric replied smiling wryly. "And just as well I'm getting out of plaster today."

"What do you mean?"

Eric struggled back up onto his crutches. "I get the feeling that hell is about to break loose." He headed towards the office door. "Again."

~*~

Katie looked up from the sheaf of notes that she'd offered to collate in time to see Lucas shaking his head.

"What?" she asked. Lucas opened his mouth to say something, then closed his mouth and shook his head again. "Lucas, what?"

"Eric."

"Ye-es."

"And Kimberly."

Katie rolled her eyes heavenwards. "Lucas, you are ** such** a guy."

"What?" Lucas looked bemused.

"Oblivious to what's right in front of you."

"But..." Katie just shook her head. "But they..."

"Lucas, you remember what Wes and Jen were like?" Lucas nodded slowly. "And you didn't think the way Eric and Kim were acting when we were there was at all familiar?" Lucas shook his head. "Men!" It was her turn to shake her head. "Never mind their love life, did you get to tell Eric the 'good' news?"

Lucas nodded again. "Yeah."

"Good." Katie pointed towards the door. "You have work to do, remember?"

He looked in askance at her. "When did you get so bossy?"

"When I signed up for Civ-ad," Katie answered. "It goes with the territory." He snorted. "Go on -- Dr Bennett might have something for us."

Lucas shook his head and left the office, still muttering about Eric and Kimberly. Katie chuckled softly and turned her attention back to the notes. There had to be something in them somewhere that would help the present situation...

"Something funny?"

Katie found herself smiling softly at the voice. Looking up, there was Alex standing in the office doorway, an amused light in his eyes.

"Only Lucas," she replied. Alex lifted his eyebrows. "He's just spoken to Eric."

"And that's amusing?" Alex queried.

"Well, Lucas' reaction to Eric and Kimberly being together was."

"They're together?" Alex blinked. "I can't believe I missed that!"

Katie groaned. "And I can't believe you're that oblivious, Alex. Lucas, yes -- you..."

"No...no..." Alex shook his head. "Not oblivious -- thank you. I knew they were together. Just stunned that it didn't occur to me sooner."

It was Katie's turn to lift an eyebrow. "I'll bite."

"The thing that Biocon had prevented." Alex shook his head ruefully. "Although it's not like I could have exactly done anything about it."

"And in some parallel universe that probably made sense," Katie retorted.

Alex had the grace to look sheepish. "Sorry. Basically, when I went to get Wes and Jen for the trial I had a second mission brief: To persuade Eric to stay on in Silverhills rather than walk away, because if he walked away... Look, it's a long, complicated explanation and it involves temporal stuff that I only half understand at the best of times!"

Katie chuckled. "OK -- I'll let you off. For now." Alex smiled. "Do you have news from Director Hawking?"

Katie felt her insides freeze as Alex's smile faded. "Yes and no."

~*~

Ben paced nervously, wondering if he'd done the right thing.

He had been covering for Eric while he convalesced from the injuries incurred as bel Abis' captive, and that meant dealing with in coming calls from clients. Unfortunately, that number included dealing with the extremely irritating chief of Silverhills Police Department, Graham Mackenzie.

Mackenzie could -- and regularly did -- reduce Eric to apoplexy with his attitude towards the Silver Guardians. It had been his predecessor in the job who had set up the arrangement with Biolab and the Silver Guardians, and Mackenzie hated it. As far as Mackenzie was concerned, the Guardians were nothing short of criminals themselves, and being forced to work with them was galling.

Ben smirked faintly. Mackenzie did everything he could to avoid having to call in the Guardians on matters, but every now and then a situation arose that he needed their help with. The chrono-sabre gangs at the start of the year had been one such, and this could well prove to be another.

The Mayor had announced a major crackdown on speeding.

And Mackenzie didn't have anywhere near the numbers of cops in traffic to conduct that sort of exercise.

So he had been forced to phone the Silver Guardians and ask for help. Ben almost wished Eric had been around to take the call, just from the perspective of hearing Mackenzie grovel.

The plan Ben had agreed to was simple. Ten Guardians would pair up with ten traffic officers, doubling the number of traffic patrols available, for the duration of the operation. Knowing that none of the other Guardians selected for this particularly onerous duty would be happy, Ben made sure people knew his name had been the first one down for it.

The ploy had worked -- more or less. There were still plenty of grumbles but... That had been Friday. It was now Monday, and the start of the crackdown which meant that Ben now found himself standing outside of the Ninth Street precinct waiting for his partner for the day.

"Hi -- Ben Johnson, right?" asked a voice, pulling Ben out of his thoughts.

Looking round, he spotted the waiting traffic cop. "Certainly am," he answered.

The cop grinned. "Patrol officer Stevens -- I'm taking you out today."

"Nice to meet you."

"Shall we?"

~*~

Katie met Alex's gaze. "What do you mean 'yes and no'?"

He sighed. "We still don't know precisely where they are, but we think we know where they're going."

"Well -- that's good, isn't it?" Katie replied, trying to ignore the feeling of impending doom Alex's words were inspiring. "I mean, if we know where they're going to end up..."

"It's the year 2002," Alex interrupted. "They're going for the same target Biocon was."

Katie felt her stomach tightening. "Which was?"

Alex sat down, grimacing. "There's a moth-balled power plant near San Francisco."

"What're they after?" Katie repeated, wishing there were someway she could comfort Alex and at the same time, knowing there wasn't.

"I think...Hawking thinks that they're after that power plant. And if that's what they want, their goal is...total annihilation of the whole west coast of America..."

"And the destruction of this time," Katie finished.

~*~

"...Mackenzie's face turned purple -- I thought he was going to explode!" Stevens finished the anecdote hooting with laughter.

Laughter that Ben matched. "Oh, man!" he gasped. "I'm glad it's not just us he treats like that!"

Stevens snorted. "Nope -- he's as bad with us as he is with... Geez Louise where's the fire, lady!"

Almost before Ben could blink he found Stevens had accelerated the patrol car they were sitting in from nought to something definitely above the speed limit, switched on the siren and set them in pursuit of the mustard yellow Mustang.

"OK, Ben," Stevens continued, attention rooted to the road and the car they were following, "welcome to traffic patrol. She's doing sixty in a thirty zone, she's talking on a cell phone..."

"And she doesn't look like she wants to stop," Ben observed.

"She hasn't seen me yet," Stevens replied, more in sorrow than anger. "Let's see how long this goes on..."

"She's gotta have seen you!" Ben objected.

Steven smiled wryly. "Nope -- you'd be surprised how long it takes sometimes."

Ben was. It took six miles of pursuit before the driver they were trailing came to a stop.

"What we'll do," Stevens said as he pulled to a halt a yard or so back from the now stopped Mustang, "is we'll both go out and have a chat with her and you can make out your first ticket."

"Sounds good to me," Ben agreed.

Collecting the ticket pad from the glove compartment, Ben followed Stevens up to the Mustang. The occupant of the car was, to Ben's mind, a rather pretty blonde in her mid-twenties.

"Ma'am," Stevens began, "do you have any idea how fast you were going?"

"I'm sorry officer, I..." 

"Further more," Stevens continued, not allowing her to get an excuse out, "you were using your cell phone and you failed to stop." She opened her mouth to say something, then thought better of it. "License, please."

Mutely, she handed the document over and Stevens passed it to Ben. Ms Taylor Earhardt, according to the license, was twenty-five and hailed from Colorado. Which did rather beg the question of what the heck she was doing speeding through Silverhills' suburbs, but he wasn't about to ask. It wasn't any of his business.

Ben finished writing the ticket, handed it to Stevens, along with the license, who then handed both to Taylor.

"Have a nice day, ma'am," Stevens concluded. "Drive safely, now."

~*~

Taylor grumbled under her breath as she carefully pulled away from the scene. That just crowned her day. Sent on a fruitless chase through Silverhills looking for orgs that seemed to be there then not, about the only consolation was the car she'd hired...and now ** that** had gotten her into trouble.

"Some days, you just can't win."

~*~

Kimberly couldn't help but smile as Eric finally came out of the doctor's room, sans plaster cast and crutches, although he was leaning rather heavily on a walking stick.

"Well?" she asked.

"Very well," he answered, offering a grin himself. "I'm still signed off from active duty -- and will be for another month -- but at least I can start doing the desk job again. Make me feel useful."

Kimberly chuckled and shook her head. "Most people would have been delighted to be signed off work for four weeks." Eric just favoured her with a look that said 'I don't do sitting around'. "I know, I know. So what about therapy?"

"Case file's being passed to the med staff at SGHQ," Eric replied. "Which suits me."

"More convenient, certainly," Kimberly agreed.

"The down side," Eric continued, grimacing, "is that I'm still at least a week from being cleared to drive again."

"Oh?" Kimberly blinked. "How come?"

"The muscles in my right leg are screwed up from four weeks of no use. It'll take a little time for them to sort themselves out." He sighed. "Sorry."

Kimberly shook her head again. "Sorry for what? It's not like this is your fault. C'mon -- let's get out of here."

Slowly Kimberly and Eric headed out of the hospital foyer.

"So, where now?" she asked.

"Well, I guess we ought to tell Gina I'm not now going AMA. Then...you know what I really, really fancy?" Eric asked.

Kimberly unlocked the SUV passenger door. "No, what?"

"A bath," he replied, carefully climbing in. Kimberly laughed as she got into the driver's seat. "I'm serious," Eric insisted. "You never realise how much you enjoy something like that until you can't do it."

Pulling away from the parking lot, Kimberly considered his words. "I guess you've got a point. So SGHQ and then home?"

"Sounds good." Eric sighed. "Thank you."

She smiled. "It's what I'm here for."

Eric might or might not have had a response to that statement, Kimberly never found out as his cell phone started to ring. She frowned. The only people likely to be calling him on the device were people connected with the Silver Guardians and they wouldn't be doing it currently because it was known Eric was signed off from physical activity. She felt a lead ball start to form in her stomach. Unless it was something serious.

"Myers," Eric answered. Kimberly held her breath. "Gina, what is it?" Kimberly groaned softly. It was something serious. "Mmhm. Get hold of Ben." There was another pause. Eric's next words were in a much more concerned tone. "They're sure about that?" Another pause. "OK Gina. I'll be with you in five." Another pause. "No, I don't know what I'm going to do yet." Eric sighed. "But 'something silly' is looking likely right now."

"Not if I can help it," Kimberly muttered to herself as Eric finished the call. "What's happened?"

There was a long, long moment as Eric clearly debated what to say. "There's been a mutant attack." He sighed. "It was over in seconds after the Guardians got there."

Kimberly turned into the SGHQ parking lot and parked. "What happened?"

"Eight wounded, three serious, one critical. And the end came not because the Guardians dealt with the threat but because the threat teleported -- or something -- out." Eric groaned. "And from the prelim reports, the Guardians couldn't touch them."

~*~

Ben put his cell phone away.

"Problems?" Stevens asked.

"Yeah. All Guardians have been recalled to 'guardian duty'." Ben grimaced. "We have mutants back in the city."

Stevens swore. "Where do you need me to take you?"

Almost as if to give Ben's answer for him, one of the CGD SUVs pulled up along side Stevens' patrol car. "My ride's here."

Stevens nodded. "Good luck!"

Ben offered Stevens a smile. "Thanks."

~*~

Kimberly followed Eric into the building. She knew, almost as clearly as if he'd told her, what he was planning. 

"I've contacted Ben," Gina announced without preamble. "He's been picked up by Miller and Deslaurier."

"What was he doing to be out of the building anyway?" Eric asked.

Gina just shook her head. "Long story. It involves Chief Mackenzie."

"I don't want to know," Eric said hastily.

Kimberly smiled briefly. She'd gotten to hear Eric's unvarnished opinion of the present chief of Silverhills' police department. So had Gina, from the expression on the other woman's face.

"OK, so Ben is out on patrol..." Eric sighed. "Everyone else is on general alert?" Gina nodded. "OK."

"You're not going to do something stupid?" Gina asked.

"Not if I can do anything about it," Kimberly answered.

"And we have exactly what other options?" Eric retorted. "From the prelim reports..."

"Guardian blasters had no effect," Gina confirmed. "Schwartz was commander of the patrol that attended. She's confirmed that everyone went in with fully charged blasters and Zaskin's confirmed the blasters are all but spent now."

Kimberly watched as Eric's shoulders sagged. "I don't have a choice."

"Yes you do," Gina retorted. "Give the morpher to someone else."

Gina made it sound so simple but Kimberly knew from her own experiences that it was anything but.

"It's not that easy, Gina." Eric started for his office. "I wish it was."

"He can't do this!" Gina exclaimed. "I mean...he just can't!"

Kimberly smiled grimly. "It's going to happen over my dead body," she promised.

Before Gina could answer, Kimberly headed after Eric, a plan already forming in her mind.

"Eric," she began, following him into the office, "you can't do this."

"And again, I say, what the hell other choice do I have?" Eric retorted. "We have mutants in the city, who the rest of the Guardians can't hurt with their blasters..."

"Yes," said Kimberly, cutting him off, "the Quantum Ranger is needed. It doesn't have to be you."

Eric groaned. "You know it's not that simple."

"I do," Kimberly agreed, gently. "You need to find someone who you trust and who you know can do it."

"The only Guardian I'd trust like that -- who isn't already a ranger -- is Ben and he's far too good a commander. He needs to be there, on the ground, running the show."

Kimberly nodded -- she'd more or less guessed that would be Eric's response. "What about me?"

"You've got to be kidding!" Kimberly debated whether to be insulted by Eric's comment. "I know you were a ranger but..."

"But nothing," she cut in. "It's not something you forget how to do. I can do this."

"That's not what I'm talking about," Eric retorted. "What about Alice? What happens to her if something happens to you?"

"And what happens to her if those mutants trash this city?" Kimberly shot back. "You've said yourself we need the Quantum Ranger -- and you've more or less admitted you're in no shape to do it. I can do this."

There was a long, long silence. Kimberly stood, arms folded across her chest, watching as Eric wrestled with the idea and with his own fears. 

"It's not that I don't trust you with this," he finally said softly. "You're just about the only person I would trust... I don't like the idea of putting you in danger."

"But you're not putting me in danger," Kimberly reminded him just as softly. "I'm offering to do this."

Without saying anything, Eric limped across the office.

"Eric?" Kimberly asked, puzzled.

"You're right." He struggled down into a crouch beside the safe. "I don't like it and I will probably be pissed if you get hurt...but you're right." It clearly took a little doing, to judge from the barely audible cursing, but Eric opened the safe and produced the Quantum Morpher from its place in secure storage. He got back to his feet and limped back towards Kimberly. "Voice identification deactivate."

The morpher bleeped and said, "Voice identification deactivated."

He held the device out to Kimberly. "It's yours."

She accepted the morpher and strapped it to her left wrist feeling both nervous and oddly excited. "Is there anything I should know?" she wondered.

Eric sighed. "It's all pretty much instinctive."

"It'll be OK," she promised. "I..."

But cutting her off, the general alert sounded throughout the building. Expression unreadable, Eric nodded. "You'd better go."

Kimberly took a step towards the door, then stopped. She turned back to Eric and kissed him. "I promise I'll come back OK."

Eric managed a weak smile, although he looked more anxious than she'd ever seen him. "You'd probably better morph here and then join the Guardians at the attack site."

Kimberly nodded. There was good sense in that idea - the other Guardians would know, probably instantly, that she wasn't Eric, but there was no sense in advertising the change to the public. _And if you're honest,_ Kimberly realised, _you'd rather morph here in case something goes wrong._

Nervously, she lifted her wrist.

_TO BE CONTINUED..._


	2. Wild Ride

Disclaimer: Characters and events don't belong to me, they're borrowed from BVE without permission but no harm, no foul, no money made. The exceptions to this are Gina and Ben and assorted minor characters. Gina is mine, Ben belongs to Ekat and the assorted characters belong to themselves -- and many thank yous to you for allowing me to borrow you.

Canon Junkies please note: Because of the way the Identiverse has ended up there are considerable differences between this story and the two episodes 'Reinforcements From The Future I and II'. If I've changed something, it's almost certainly to get it to fit into the universe or to write out a plot hole or to be consistent.

Muchos gracias to Vanessa and Ree for beta'ing this for me. Also thanks to Chris for again spotting my deliberate mistake (!!) and offering me feedback. Lastly -- but by no means leastly -- many, many, MANY thanks to Gamine for being a truly wonderful human being. This story is for you.

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing.

~*~

Wild Ride

Ben couldn't help but shake his head. "Man, I hope they broke the mould when they minted you guys," he muttered. "Cos you sure are ugly and I'd hate to think there were more than three of ya."

Looking round Cranston Plaza he could see an already depleted force of Silver Guardians moving into position, surrounding the trio of mutants. Ben had heard all about the mutants' first attack from Miller and Deslaurier and he wasn't deluding himself that this would go any better for the guardians. _But we have to try._

"You are surrounded," he called, stepping forwards, towards the three mutants. "Give yourselves up or we will be forced to fire."

The leader of the trio sneered back and said something incomprehensible. Ben realised what it was a second later as the other two mutants opened fire with energy beams.

"Take cover and open fire!" Ben ordered, even as he moved to just that himself. _Oh man, what I wouldn't do right now to hear..._

Ben found himself mentally trailing off as he heard the very thing he'd been hoping for - however improbable it was. The sound of the TF Eagle's jets. _Eric wouldn't!_ Ben exclaimed silently. _Not even he would be crazy enough to try it...and Kim and Gina wouldn't let him if he was!_ And yet, impossibly, there **was** the TF Eagle, swooping low over Cranston Plaza...and there **was** the Quantum Ranger vaulting out of the TF Eagle, Quantum Defender blazing.

"Guardians, let's back 'him' up!" Ben ordered. He wasn't sure who it was with the Quantum Ranger powers -- beyond the obvious that it wasn't Eric -- but he knew one thing; whomever it was needed help. The trio of mutants had been taken by surprise to start off with but that had lasted all of five seconds and now they were doing their best to triple team 'him'.

Matching action to words, Ben started to fire his blaster, trying to distract one of the mutants. The rest of the guardians picked up his tactic but it was a hopeless endeavour. The mutants had them desperately outgunned and even with the Quantum Ranger's powers added to the mix, it was only staving off the inevitable.

"Jungle sword!"

Before Ben could process the shout, a blast of multicoloured energy surged by him, narrowly missing his shoulder, to strike one of the mutants squarely in the chest. 

__

Reinforcements!

"Guardians -- keep it up!"

But the mutants had already decided with withdraw. Speaking in that oddly garbled, impenetrable tongue, the leader made an order and a moment later the trio vanished in a haze of teleportation sparkles.

Ben swore softly. That was not good. He took a step towards the Quantum Ranger but before he could so much as open his mouth to say something to...her, Ben realised, the TF Eagle returned and she made a swift and vocally silent departure, leaving Ben shaking his head. _Well that was...weird..._ He made a mental note to speak to Eric and find out what was going on when he got back to base.

"Looks like we got here just in time," exclaimed a voice.

Looking round, Ben found himself confronted by the reinforcements. Five rangers -- but not the Time Force rangers. _For one thing, I know Wes and Jen aren't in town..._He tried to gather his wits together to reply, but the yellow ranger beat him to it.

"We just helped you -- the least you could do is say thanks!"

Ben found himself gaping at her, incredulous. "Ex-cuse me?"

"Taylor, knock it off!" That was the red ranger.

Instead, however, the yellow ranger powered down and took a step closer to Ben. "And you're the guy that gave me a ticket this morning!"

Ben blinked. Sure enough, the yellow ranger was Ms Taylor Earhardt -- comfortably the last person he'd been expecting to see.

"Taylor!" The quartet of other rangers all demorphed, with the red and black rangers immediately leapt forward, restraining Taylor even as she tried to step forward.

Ben shook his head. "Lady, I am grateful -- very grateful -- that you guys showed up when you did. But lemme give you a tip. Don't argue about gettin' a ticket when the cops stop you for doin' sixty in a thirty zone, talking on a cell phone and failure to stop."

"I stopped!"

"After six miles of pursuit!"

"Taylor!" 

Ben wasn't sure what to make of the expression on the other female ranger's face -- whether she was amused or scandalised.

Taylor glared back, unrepentant, and opened her mouth to say something else, but the red ranger got in first: "Where'd the ranger go?"

That was something that Ben was wondering himself. "I don't know," he admitted.

The red ranger nodded. "Well...we'll be in town for a while," he replied. "If you see that other ranger...tell him we should join forces -- there's no way that we can win against the orgs if we don't."

"Orgs?" Ben echoed.

"Orgs -- those big, ugly things you were trying to zap," cut in Taylor sharply.

__

Momma taught me never hit a lady, but right now I'd make an exception. "Lady..." Ben shook his head. Turning his attention back to the red ranger, he said, "If I catch up with 'him', I'll tell 'him'."

The red ranger smiled. "Thank you."

Ben grinned. "And thank you for saving our butts."

"Any time."

Ben watched the five rangers leave. _Orgs? Guess I'd better get back to base and pass the message on._ He frowned. _Presuming that the boss tells me what's going on..._

~*~

Nadira shifted from foot to foot as the elevator slowly climbed. It wasn't just the fact that this was the first time she'd been to visit her father since his incarceration that was bothering her. It wasn't just that she was engaged to a serving Time Force officer and a man that she knew her father wouldn't approve of. It wasn't even the fact that she had chosen, after helping Time Force to nail Arachna, Merle Askot and Biocon, to serve the rest of her parole by joining the Time Force academy and was therefore coming to visit her father dressed as a Time Force academy cadet. It was all of those things.

She wished that this didn't have to happen -- that this could just be a social visit. But there was a nagging feeling that her father had once told her about a trio of creatures he had made some kind of deal with. So this had to be 'official'. Trip had offered to come with her, but she'd declined, saying,

__

"He's likely going to be hostile anyway -- no point in making it worse."

Trip had nodded in agreement and had left it at that.

Right at this moment though, Nadira wished he'd insisted. Or that she'd changed her mind. Anything rather than facing this on her own.

The elevator came to a halt and the doors opened leaving her little alternative but to step out.

"Ah," said the guard. "Cadet Williams. I was expecting you. This way."

Hearing herself referred to by her mother's surname still took a little getting used to, Nadira decided as she followed the guard, but given that the other option had been taking Ransik's name... 

"Here we are." The guard came to a halt outside an interview room. "I'll be outside should you need anything."

"Thank you."

The guard held the door open, and Nadira entered the room. A moment later, and through another door, her father entered.

"Who the... Nadira?!"

"Hello, daddy."

~*~

Ben made his way up to Eric's office still pondering what an Org was -- and where those other rangers had sprung from. As he neared the office, however, he could hear the clear sounds of an argument.

"I'm OK!"

"But you could have..."

"'Could have' didn't happen, Eric; I'm not made of glass." Ben almost did an about face, definitely not wanting to get into the middle of this argument, then Kimberly added, "Remember I've been doing this longer than you have!"

Ben froze to the spot. _Huh???_

"The last time you morphed you had a whole team with you," Eric retorted.

"And what would you call Ben and the rest of the guardians?"

__

Yes, what **would** you call us? Ben found himself wondering because the clear implication was Eric didn't believe the guardians were up to the task.

"Good back up," Eric answered. "I'm not saying they're not...and if I thought they weren't I wouldn't be here doing this job. But there are some stunts that need the backup of a full ranger team. Been there, done that, nearly killed myself in the process."

"Oh so it's all right for you to risk your neck..."

"No, it isn't. As someone pointed out to me," Eric interrupted, "I have responsibilities. And so do you."

"I did my best!"

"I'm not saying you didn't..." Whatever Eric finished that sentence with was lost as he dropped his voice.

Ben sighed. Time to make his presence known. He knocked on the office door, then entered in time to see Eric hang his head and hear him murmur, "I'm sorry -- I know."

"You do know? Good. Then start acting like it..."

"Whoa -- time out, guys," said Ben, interposing himself between the couple. Kimberly looked angry enough to start throwing punches. "You realise I could hear you down the hall?" 

Eric looked sheepish. Kimberly just shrugged. 

"Man, this is so not my day," Ben mumbled.

"What can I do for you Ben?" Eric asked, blatantly hoping for a change of subject.

"Well I was going to report how the battle went and tell you what we're up against," Ben replied, glancing at Kimberly, "but I'm guessing you've already heard most of what I'd be telling you." He hesitated. "Unless Kimberly taking up the QM wasn't what you guys were just arguing about."

"We weren't arguing," said Kimberly coolly. "We..."

"Were yelling at each other loud enough that I could hear you down the hall -- and let me tell you," Ben added, "I didn't need to be having heart failure brought on by learning my boss' fiancée was a Power Ranger. And I'm figuring that wasn't something you wanted to be common knowledge."

At that, Kimberly looked sheepish. Eric looked as if he was wishing for a convenient hole to open up in the floor to swallow him.

"OK, good. Now I've got **both** your attentions," Ben continued, "you want to tell me what the argument **was** about -- since I know for a fact you," and he nodded at Eric, "have to have agreed to give the QM to Kim."

"How do you know that?" Kimberly wondered.

Ben chuckled. "First test Zaskin did last July. See if the morpher worked for anyone else. I happened to be the someone else Zaskin collared for the experiment."

Kimberly made a silent 'oh' with her mouth.

Ben crossed his arms over his chest. "You going to tell me or do I guess?"

"I overreacted," Eric admitted, studying the floor of his office.

"No shit," mumbled Kimberly.

"I said I was sorry."

"I..."

"Time out!" Ben interposed himself once more as hostilities threatened to break out again. "OK. May I make a couple of comments?" Both Eric and Kimberly gestured to go ahead. "First -- Kim, cut Eric a little slack; it's gotta chafe that he can't do anything to help right now." Kimberly opened her mouth to object. "And you," Ben continued, ignoring her and concentrating on Eric, "is it really so hard to trust that your fiancée knows what she's doing?"

There was a long and awkward silence. Ben wondered if he'd over stepped the bounds of friendship with what he'd just said and wondered at what point Eric and Kimberly would hit him. Then Eric sighed.

"You're right -- as always." Ben didn't think he'd ever seen Eric look so contrite. "I am sorry, Kim...and I do trust you. I just..." Eric swallowed. "I don't like the idea of you getting hurt."

For a second, Ben thought Kimberly would take a swing at Eric for that comment, then he saw the tension bleed from her petite form. "I know you don't," she answered, "but I'm really **not** made of glass." And then she smiled. "And if you don't manage to stop thinking of me that way, you will give yourself an ulcer."

Ben chuckled. "She has you there, boss," he observed.

Eric smiled wryly and nodded. "I know. Doesn't help, but I know."

"Sorry for cutting and running," Kimberly added, glancing at Ben, "but I figure it's going to be a whole hell of a lot easier if the general public **doesn't** know and that includes those other rangers."

"Other rangers?" said Eric a little puzzled.

"The ones that ultimately saved our asses," said Ben, trying not to grin. He was beginning to get a real picture for what he'd walked into.

"You mean the ones that Kim would have told me about had I not opened my big mouth?" said Eric, groaning. "Why don't I just go home, since I seem to be singularly useless right now?"

Ben shook his head, amusement fading. "We're gonna need your know-how, boss."

"You're far from useless," Kimberly put in. "You're the one who has all the experience when it comes to fighting mutants."

"Not to mention you're a great tactician," Ben added.

"OK, OK, stop trying to inflate my ego." Eric sighed. "So...if I promise to keep my mouth shut this time, can you tell me what happened?" 

~*~

Nadira met her father's incredulous gaze.

"You're in **Time Force**?" he exclaimed. "But... I cannot believe any daughter of mine would be accepted by **them**," he snarled.

Nadira shrugged. "They have."

Ransik snorted. "They'll turn on you."

"They might."

"Humans cannot be trusted."

"Can mutants?" Nadira retorted. "Can anyone?" Ransik snorted again. "I didn't come here to argue with you."

"Then what did you come here for?" he snapped.

"I need to ask you a couple of questions."

"Did Time Force send you here to spy on me?"

It was Nadira's turn to snort. "Hardly."

"Then why else would you want 'information'?"

Nadira thought long and hard about what words to use for her next sentence. Softly, she said, "There's a trio of criminals who've escaped through time, to the past. No-one knows who they are but we...think they want to destroy this time."

"And I should care because?"

"Because if they succeed everyone in this time period will be wiped out. You, me, the bagel guy who has a stand on the corner of the Quadrangle, Ezra Dusck who used to baby-sit me when I was little... Everyone."

"I say again: I should care because? I'm stuck here for the rest of my life; you've betrayed me by joining Time Force...as for the rest of this time period, why should I care about them? They're sub-mutant scum."

Nadira winced. She had heard that viewpoint put forth numerous times. It had never bothered her before. _Because I'd never thought about it before._ She shivered, seeing the distance between herself and her father rapidly growing.

"I won't disturb you any further, then," she said softly, turning for the door.

"No...wait..." Nadira stopped, hearing the pleading note suddenly audible in Ransik's voice. "Do...do you have to go?"

Slowly Nadira turned back to face him. "I have to get back," she answered. "I have work I need to do -- and we need to find these criminals before it's too late." Again she turned to leave.

"Time Force can't hurt them. Can they?"

Nadira wasn't sure what to make of Ransik's tone of voice now. It was half proud, half...something else that she couldn't name. "No," she replied.

She put her hand on the doorknob.

"They're half org."

She froze and slowly turned back to face him. "Pardon?"

"The three criminals," Ransik replied. "They're half org half mutant." He looked down, studying his boot-tops. "I...think I created them."

~*~

Eric listened as Kimberly and Ben both described events in Cranston Plaza and slowly shook his head.

"Ten bucks says this is what was up with Lucas," he muttered when they had finished. Ben quirked an eyebrow. "Long story." Ben shrugged. "Well, it's pretty clear that we," and Eric made a gesture as if to encompass the whole of the building, "can't do anything about these guys on our own. Did the Red Ranger say anything about how we could contact them?"

Ben shook his head. "Nope -- just said they'd be in town. But I'm betting I can track them down through Ms Earhardt's Mustang."

Eric frowned. "Earhardt?"

"Yeah -- Taylor Earhardt," Ben answered. "Snotty-nosed, bossy, obnoxious..."

"Pilot," Eric put in, grinning.

"You know her?" said Kimberly, a little surprised.

"Sort of," he replied. "Met her once or twice and got stuck with hauling her drunk little ass out of a bar. It's a very, very long story," he added.

"It sounds like it," said Kimberly dubiously. "And I'm not sure I want to know."

"It's also beside the point." He grimaced. "OK -- Ben, you want to get ahead and track her down. The sooner we hook up with them the better as far as I can see." Ben nodded. "Meantime, I think I'm going to speak to Lucas again."

"Why?" asked Kimberly.

"Because I have a feeling that the problem he told me they 'had under control' has just landed here in Silverhills." 

~*~

Katie looked at Lucas and Alex. The expressions on their faces mirrored her own. All three of them were very, very worried.

"We've lost contact with them?" Alex asked. "You're sure?"

Lucas nodded. "I'm positive."

The slump to Alex's shoulders told Katie all she needed to know about what he thought about that piece of news.

"And Nadira's sure about what her father's told her?" Alex continued.

It was Katie's turn to nod. "Yes she is. They're mutorgs."

Alex groaned, head in hands. "This is getting worse and worse by the second. Hawking and team have done timeline analysis on the effect of that power plant going up."

"I think we can both work out that's not good," said Katie.

Alex snorted. "Not good doesn't even begin to cover it." Katie winced.

"Well," said Lucas forcing his voice to sound upbeat, "I can go tell Bennett what we're dealing with, and I think that'll give us something to hurt them with."

Katie watched Alex nod. "OK."

As Lucas departed, Katie opened her mouth to say something only to be interrupted by the holo-screen flaring into life.

"Lucas?" said Eric.

"He's not here right now," Katie answered. "What's up, Eric?"

"What isn't," came the reply. "I don't suppose you'd happen to know about a trio of mutants who've just turned up in Silverhills and who the Silver Guardians are about as much use against as an ashtray on a motorbike?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Katie saw Alex put his head into his hands. "They've arrived in 2002?"

"Let me guess," said Eric dryly. "This would be what Lucas insisted was 'under control'?"

Katie sighed and nodded. "Yes it would. And they're not mutants."

She watched as Eric's eyes went wide. "What the hell are they if they're **not** mutants?"

"Mutorgs," Alex supplied, from his position just out of Eric's view.

"Who said that?"

"Alex," Katie replied.

"Oh," Eric grunted, looking less than enthused by that. "So what do I need to know?"

Alex got up and moved into view. "Right now," he answered, "we're still working on it."

"And what does that mean?" Eric enquired. "You don't know what a mutorg can do?"

Katie saw the wry expression on Alex's face. "Pretty much."

Eric looked a little startled at the honesty. "Oh great -- and here I was hoping you'd be able to tell me where to hit 'em."

Alex shook his head. "We're working on it. About the only thing I can tell you is that there's very little that'll hurt them -- there is another team of rangers in your time period who've been fighting 'standard' orgs. They maybe able to help."

Somewhat to Katie's surprise, Eric didn't look surprised by that. "We're just about to hook up with them."

"OK." Alex nodded. "Take the holo-screen with you. As soon as we have something solid, I promise we'll get in touch and send reinforcements."

Katie watched as Eric reached forward to cut the connection, then hesitated. "What about Wes and Jen?" Katie glanced at Alex in time to see him pale. "I got the impression from Lucas that they were after these guys and that was why they weren't back yet."

"They were," Katie answered.

"Were?"

"We've lost contact with them," Alex replied quietly.

"I see."

Eric cut the connection before Alex could say anything more.

"It's not your fault," said Katie quietly. "No matter what Eric thinks -- no matter what **you** think."

Alex gave a brittle snort of laughter. "That's just it, Katie -- it **is** my fault. I'm the one who ordered them after the mutorgs." He shook his head. "I can't do this any more."

~*~

Eric stared in silence at the now blank holo-screen.

"What's happened?" Kimberly asked softly.

"Wes and Jen are missing," he answered tonelessly. "They were after the trio that've shown up here."

"What do you mean 'missing'?" Ben asked, having walked into the office in time to hear the answer. One look at Eric, however, clearly told him everything he needed to know. "Oh."

"So," said Eric, a thread of steel entering his voice, "we are going to get these mutorgs. No ifs, no ands, no buts." Kimberly could only watch as suddenly Eric's posture changed from a man defeated to a man with a purpose. "Ben -- do we have a location on Ms Earhardt?"

Kimberly watched as Ben visibly scrambled for his wits, the change in Eric surprising him as much as it did her. "Yes," he finally managed. "Day's End Motel."

"Then that's where we go first."

~*~

Eric knew Kimberly and Ben were wondering if he was all right as they pulled into the parking lot of the motel. He was glad they hadn't so far asked. He wasn't sure he really had an answer for them beyond this was what he was trained for. The ability to function even under difficult circumstances.

"That's her," said Ben, spotting Taylor crossing the parking lot towards a hideously -- at least to Eric's mind -- coloured Mustang.

"Then let's go talk to her," said Kimberly, pulling the SUV into a convenient parking spot.

Taylor had clearly heard the vehicle pull up given the way she looked around until her eyes spotted it, just as Ben climbed out. Eric couldn't help but be amused as Taylor's face fell on seeing Ben.

"Not you again!" she groaned. "This is harassment."

"Lady, I ain't harassing you," Ben retorted.

"Well what are you doing here?" she wanted to know. "I'm figuring it's not for the view."

Eric bit his lip -- he didn't think he'd ever seen Ben look quite so stunned. He coughed, pulling both prospective combatants' attentions towards where he and Kimberly were standing. He wasn't terribly surprised to see no light of recognition in Taylor's expression. She had been well and truly soused the night he'd had to carry her home from the bar, and the following morning, he'd just been one of many Marines.

"Ma'am," he began, "two things. One, Ben is the man least likely to harass a lady on the face of this planet," Ben blushed, "and two, unless you want me to tell both my friends and yours how you got the nickname Ejector Earhardt, I suggest you shut up." Taylor blushed then paled.

"How do you... Jarhead!" she realised.

"Ex-Jarhead, thank you," Eric retorted. "Do I have your attention now?" Sulkily, Taylor nodded. "Good. I'm told your red friend told Ben here," and he gestured in Ben's direction, "that we should work together."

"You're the other ranger?" Taylor asked.

"No, that would be me," said Kimberly, speaking for the first time.

"Then who are you?" Taylor retorted, looking at Eric. "Other than an ex-Jarhead."

"Ben's boss -- and someone who knows a hell of a lot more about those three mutorgs than you do at present." Taylor opened her mouth to say something. Eric rolled his eyes. "Geez you can tell you used to be an officer. Quit it!" Taylor's mouth closed with a snap. "The reason we're here," Eric continued, "is that your red friend is right, we do need to work together."

"What rank were you in the Marines?" she asked.

"Sergeant," Eric replied.

"Figures," said Taylor. "All right. Two conditions. One -- he," and she gestured towards Ben, "says nothing about my driving. Two -- you keep what happened in Germany to yourself."

"Done."

"Follow me."

__

TO BE CONTINUED...


	3. Unexpected Help

Disclaimer: Characters and events don't belong to me, they're borrowed from BVE without permission but no harm, no foul, no money made. The exceptions to this are Gina and Ben and assorted minor characters. Gina is mine, Ben belongs to Ekat and the assorted characters belong to themselves -- and many thank yous to you for allowing me to borrow you.

Canon Junkies please note: Because of the way the Identiverse has ended up there are considerable differences between this story and the two episodes 'Reinforcements From The Future I and II'. If I've changed something, it's almost certainly to get it to fit into the universe or to write out a plot hole or to be consistent.

Muchos gracias to Vanessa and Ree for beta'ing this for me. Also thanks to Chris for again spotting my deliberate mistake (!!) and offering me feedback. Lastly -- but by no means leastly -- many, many, MANY thanks to Gamine for being a truly wonderful human being. This story is for you.

NB: The term Jarhead is a derogatory term for US Marines.

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing.

~*~

Unexpected Help

Taylor sighed as she led the Jarhead, the rent-a-cop and the Ranger into the Animarium. From the looks the rent-a-cop and the Ranger were casting her, the Jarhead had told them what had happened in Germany on the way here, despite his promise to the contrary. _Just so long as he doesn't tell Max,_ she mused.

Then again, Max tended to find these things out by osmosis so it probably wouldn't make any difference: By the end of the day the chances were the rest of the Rangers would know about Germany. _And that probably includes Merrick._

Almost as if sensing her return, the Eaglezord swooped low over the party as they made their way into the temple. To Taylor's amusement, the trio following her all ducked, the Jarhead even going so far as to reach for a non-existent side-arm. It was a reflex that did, briefly, make her wonder what the stick was about.

"That's my Eaglezord," she said, reassuring them that it wasn't anything to worry about. She couldn't resist adding, "I bet you've never seen anything like it."

"A giant eagle, huh?" muttered the Jarhead, not sounding impressed.

"She should have seen the Q-Rex," decided the rent-a-cop.

"Guys!" hissed the Ranger in disapproval.

Taylor snorted. _Bastards._

"Taylor!" 

Alyssa's exclamation returned Taylor's attention to her surroundings. Both Alyssa and Cole were standing at the temple entrance looking at her in bemusement.

"I thought you were going to stay in Silverhills," Cole added.

"I was but..." Taylor shook her head as Max and Danny both appeared. "The orgs are gone -- again, and these guys," she gestured towards the trio behind her, "said we need to team up. They seem to think they know something about this."

"I don't 'think' I know," put in the Jarhead irritably, "I **do** know."

"Or did they just catch you speeding again?" Max wanted to know.

Behind her she heard a muffled snort from the rent-a-cop. "No, they did not catch me speeding again," she snapped.

"Taylor," said Cole warningly. "Hi," he added, looking at the trio, "I'm Cole. Welcome to the Animarium."

"Nice to meet you," said the Jarhead. "I'm Eric Myers, this is Kimberly Cunningham..."

"Hi," she offered.

"And Ben Johnson, who I think you've met," Eric finished.

"Hi -- again," said the rent-a-cop.

Cole swiftly rattled off introductions. "So what can we do for you?"

"It's about those three Mutorgs," Eric replied.

~*~

"I have good news and bad news," announced Dr Bennett as she entered Alex's office.

Katie looked up from the information she was still trying to collate. "Doesn't everyone right now?"

Bennett smiled. "You'll even like the bad news, I think."

Katie blinked. "That's a first."

"The good news," Bennett continued, "is that -- thanks to the information Lieutenant Kendall relayed to me -- I have a way of neutralising the Mutorgs. It's a form of plastique. When it explodes, it releases a cloud of chemical vapour. It's harmless to anyone and everyone else, but it will attack the mutated DNA of the Mutorgs, returning them to their original state."

Katie nodded. "OK -- so what's the bad news?"

"The bad news is that I need a DNA extract from the original mutant source."

"Which would be Ransik," said Katie.

Bennett nodded. "Right. And, while he's in prison, and therefore extremely accessible for this, I can't do the extract on him. Venomark's poison has further mutated his DNA."

"So we're back to square one."

Bennett smiled. "Not necessarily. Cadet Williams has enough of her father's DNA to be designated as mutant. That should be more than enough for me to get the DNA extract I need."

Katie slowly parsed Bennett's words and found herself smiling. "Have you spoken to Cadet Williams yet?"

"Lieutenant Kendall's looking for her now."

~*~

Eric finished his explanations. As he'd expected, most of the Wild Force Rangers looked sceptical. Somewhat to his surprise, Taylor wasn't one of them, although she did look a little puzzled. The other person who didn't look surprised was the fey-like woman who had been introduced as Princess Shayla.

"Let me see if I have this straight," said Max, who was -- perhaps characteristically -- first to speak. "These 'Mutorgs' are half org, half mutant, time-travelling criminals who've landed up here for some reason."

"Yep."

Max started to laugh. "That has to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

"But," said Shayla calmly, cutting across Max's laughter, "it does fit to what I've 'sensed' about these three orgs." Max's laughter dried up in an instant.

Cole looked thoughtful. "Why would they come to this time?"

Eric shrugged. "That would be the sixty-four thousand dollar question."

"The what?" said Cole, blankly.

"Never mind," said Taylor. "If you're from the future, how come you were in Germany?"

"I never said **I** was from the future," Eric answered. "And I didn't think you wanted Germany bringing up -- if you'll pardon the expression."

"Eric," said Kimberly, a warning clear in her voice as Taylor paled and subsided again. "Be nice."

Eric glanced at Kimberly. "She mentioned it."

"Germany?" said Danny, bemused. "What happened in Germany?"

"None of your business," Taylor snapped.

"So what do we do?" asked Alyssa practically. "From the sounds of things it..."

But Eric never learned what Alyssa had to say as suddenly Shayla gasped, "It's them!"

"What is?" Ben asked.

Surprisingly, it was Taylor who answered, "The orgs...Mutorgs are back -- the princess has a connection to them."

"Where are they?" Kimberly asked.

"It's a quarry just north of Silverhills -- they are looking for something."

"Well we'll just make sure they don't find it!" said Max.

"Let's go."

~*~

Alex looked through the window, down into Dr Bennett's lab, watching has she performed the DNA extraction from Nadira. It sounded like such a gruesome process, but was actually very, very simple and essentially blood-less. Of course, blood could be used, but it was just as easy to take the DNA from hair or fingernails -- and a lot less messy.

"She's changed so much," mused Lucas, who was also watching.

"She's grown up," Alex answered. "I guess you all have in some ways." He was aware of Lucas suddenly snapping his head round to stare at him. "Four months is a long time to be away from everything you know. You either grow and change or you die."

"Alex?"

Lucas' voice was so filled with alarm that Alex had to smile. "You're thinking 'he's finally cracked'. I haven't -- just done a lot of thinking."

"No -- I was thinking 'my boss is suicidal'," Lucas retorted.

Alex actually found himself chuckling at that. "Hardly. Not any more, at any rate." He risked a glance in Lucas' direction, but the other man's expression was unreadable, so he returned his attention to the procedure going on below. "Yes, I was suicidal. You don't think it's my SOP to go to Tonk's Place, get completely drunk and attempt to get a Galvas to tear me limb from limb, do you?"

"No-o."

Dr Bennett started analysing the fingernail clippings she'd taken. Given that Nadira's particular mutation gave her the power to extend her fingernails into three feet long claws, it almost stood to reason that would be the best place to get the DNA extract from.

"You said 'was'," said Lucas, breaking the silence that had suddenly sprung up. "What's changed?"

"Good question." Alex found himself smiling, remembering the night he'd spent with Katie, a night more than a week ago now. "I guess you could say I've found a reason to live."

"Alex?"

"When this is over," he continued, "I'm leaving Time Force." Lucas gave a strangulated 'eep'. "And before you ask, yes I have thought this through."

"But...but..."

Alex just shook his head. "I can't keep doing this, Lucas. I ordered Eric to kill Jen. I ordered you to give Eric those orders. I coerced Katie back into uniform during the Biocon mess... Wes and Jen are missing because of my orders." He sighed. Dr Bennett had now dismissed Nadira from the lab. Obviously they procedure had been successful and no further samples were necessary. "I've spent ten years of my life and I don't have anything to show for it but regrets and the realisation that, somewhere along the line, I forgot how to be a person."

"That's..." But Lucas clearly didn't have words for it.

And then stalling any response, Nadira and Trip both joined them.

"How did it go?" Alex asked, slipping back into the role of commanding officer.

"No problems, sir," Nadira replied. "Dr Bennett said she would be done within an hour."

"Good. The sooner the better." He glanced at Lucas, who was smiling knowingly. "For all of us."

~*~

Shayla watched as Eric limped towards the table. The obvious grace to his movements told her that he was someone who should have been in battle, the limp told her the reason why he wasn't.

"Broken leg," he said shortly and apparently apro pro of nothing.

"What is?" Shayla replied.

He took a couple of strange looking objects out of his pocket and started to set them up on the table. "The reason for the limp."

"Oh."

Eric snorted softly. "Don't say it like that." The two objects set up -- and they resembled nothing so much as two aerials set side by side -- he took another object from his pocket and pointed it at them. "You were curious as hell."

"True but..." Shayla trailed off as the image of a young woman formed between the poles.

"Captain Myers!" she squeaked.

Shayla couldn't see his face, but from the set of his shoulders, Eric was confused. "Yes -- who are you?"

"I'm sorry -- I'm Lieutenant Marissa Detournay. Major Collins asked me to comm. you...but I guess you beat me to it."

"He did, did he?"

Shayla decided that whoever 'Major Collins' was, Eric was not his biggest fan, given his tone of voice.

"He wanted you to know that we -- Time Force -- would be sending help within the hour."

"Your hour or mine?" Eric replied.

Lieutenant Detournay looked amused. "Ours. I'll comm. again once the time ship leaves."

"OK."

"Was there something you needed from us?"

Eric shook his head. "No -- that about takes care of it."

Shayla watched as Lieutenant Detournay ducked her head in a nod. "Understood, sir." Then the image faded out.

Half turning towards her, Eric asked, "Is it all right for me to leave the holo-screen set up?"

Shayla smiled. "Of course."

There was a long silence. She watched as Eric limped across to a convenient seat and sat down, a grimace of pain etched on his face. Shayla made a decision.

"I have some ointment that would help," she said.

"Huh?"

"Your leg," she elaborated. "You are in pain. Ah!" she added, holding up a hand to stall his ready retort. "Do not say you're not. I can tell."

"Right now, it's the least of my worries," Eric replied.

"Maybe so -- but I have some ointment that would help," Shayla insisted. "Then it won't be a 'worry' at all -- and you can spend your time more effectively worrying about Kimberly."

Eric looked stunned. "But I...we..."

Shayla collected the pot of ointment. "No, you didn't -- that doesn't mean I cannot tell." She smiled. "I know love and concern when I see them." She crouched beside him and opened the ointment jar. "If Kimberly is a Ranger, she can -- and will -- take care of herself in the battle." She gently laid a hand on his right thigh and felt him flinch away in pain. "Meantime -- let us see if we cannot improve **your** situation."

~*~

Rofang, leader of the Mutorgs, glared around the quarry. "It is not here," he snorted.

"But it must be!" objected Takach.

"We are wrong," said Kired matter-of-factly. "We are close but not quite."

"Hey -- Ugly, Tall and Batfink!" yelled a voice.

Rofang glanced round and spotted seven people. Six of them Rangers -- one of them clearly a member of Time Force. "Well, well," he said.

"You're goin' down," promised one of the Rangers.

"So why don't you just give up right now?" enquired another.

"And you know what," said the unmorphed man, drawing a blaster, "the uglier they are..."

"The harder they fall," finished the member of Time Force.

Rofang laughed. "Get them!"

And the battle began.

~*~

A portal opened, unnoticed by the combatants in the quarry. From it leapt two cloaked forms.

"Damn!" muttered the slightly smaller of the two, revealing herself to be female. "They're already here."

"We knew that was likely," her companion, male, reminded her. "But I think we're in time. Look!"

They both peered down into the quarry and took stock of the battle.

"Five Wild Force Rangers," noted the woman.

"One Quantum Ranger," observed the man. "Three Mutorgs...who look like they're winning."

The woman groaned softly. "They are -- this is **it**," she pointed out. "We have to do something and fast." She studied the battle and pinpointed the target. "Kired," she said. "He's the weakest of the three..."

"...and he's one-on-one with the Quantum Ranger," contributed the man. "Which means..."

"...only one person to avoid, not two or three," she finished.

"Plan, then?" he asked.

"Circle round to the west side. Then on three, we'll catch him in crossfire."

He nodded and departed at a loping jog. She watched him for a moment before centring her attention on the battle below. In the brief time they'd been talking, it had gone from bad to worse for the Rangers. The Mutorgs were tossing them around like confetti in such a way that made her wince. Seconds were going to prove crucial if they were to avoid...

Her eyes were drawn to something out of place on the battlefield. A dark shape, sneaking up on Kired.

"Shit!" She knew who that was likely to be, even as the Quantum Ranger was sent sprawling backwards by a blow from Kired.

Glancing up, she saw her companion was in place. Just as well as the dark shape fired his blaster at Kired's back, probably saving the Quantum Ranger but sacrificing himself in the process as the Mutorg's attention swung from the downed Ranger to the man behind him.

Silently, she counted three and fired at Kired, striking him on the left shoulder. Her partner's shot matched hers, but struck Kired's right shoulder. Neither blast did any serious damage to the Mutorg, but it served as a wonderful distraction.

The battle stopped as everyone -- Ranger and Mutorg alike -- looked around to see the source of the blasts. She smiled grimly and discarded her cloak; aware her actions were being matched by her partner. Before the element of surprise was lost completely, she vaulted down into the quarry, rolling between Kired and his would-be prey.

"You!" Kired exclaimed.

"Jen?! But I..." began the 'prey'.

"Us," she answered.

Before Kired could react, she and her partner fired again, one shot angling in and down from the cliff top, one shot angling in and up from the quarry floor. The combined blast sent Kired stumbling away, allowing her to drag the 'prey' to his feet and towards the waiting Rangers.

"What the...?" he murmured.

"Time for explanations later, Ben," she answered. "Right now, we need to get outta here." Jen glanced back at the Mutorgs, who were regrouping, even as the Rangers were gathering around her and her partner who had joined them on the quarry floor. "Wes..." she began.

"On it," he answered.

Letting go of Ben, Jen turned her attentions to the Mutorgs, peripherally aware of Wes setting up another portal. 

"What the hell is that?!" exclaimed someone.

Rofang gave a howl of anger and took a step towards her. She fired.

"Explanations later," Wes answered. "Escape now."

"Stop them!" Rofang ordered.

Takach took a step forward. Jen fired again, driving him back.

"We're clear," Wes called.

Jen nodded as Rofang tried another step forward. She fired off one last salvo at the trio, then turned and dived through the portal herself.

~*~

Wes looked around at everyone and at where they'd landed. In so far as blank helmets could display emotions, the Rangers were startled, to put it mildly, while Ben looked visibly stunned. As for the 'where', it appeared that they had landed in a jungle clearing.

Before he could say anything, Jen tumbled through the portal, landing at his feet as the portal collapsed behind her. 

"OK?" he asked, offering her a hand up.

"Yeah -- where are we?"

"Welcome to the Animarium," said the Red Wild Force Ranger. He demorphed in a flash of red light. "My name's Cole."

"You saved our butts!" exclaimed the Blue Ranger before Wes could answer. In a flash of blue light, he demorphed and introduced himself as, "Max."

"Thank you," put in the White Ranger as she demorphed. "Alyssa."

"Where'd you come from?" the Yellow Ranger wanted to know as she demorphed.

"Taylor play nice," warned the Black Ranger as he demorphed. "Danny," he added as a belated introduction.

"Nice to meet you," Wes finally said, smiling. "Wes Collins," he added, introducing himself.

"Jen Scotts," Jen added.

"So where **did** you come from?" asked Taylor, not entirely unfriendly. "One minute you weren't there, the next you were."

"It's a long story," Jen answered.

"It had better be!" exclaimed Ben, who to this point had said nothing. "Considering we were told you two were missing." He smiled and Wes found himself enveloped in a Katie-like bear hug. "Man it is good to see you guys."

"Ben -- I'd like to be able to breath sometime soon!" 

"Boss'll be pleased, too," Ben added, releasing his hold. "He about had a shit-fit."

"I did not," said Eric dryly from the far side of the clearing, "have a shit-fit."

Wes' head jerked round at the sound of Eric's voice, expecting to see the flash of light as he demorphed, only to discover Eric standing in jeans and a shirt, leaning on a walking stick.

"Looks like we're not the only one with a long story to tell," Jen observed. "But if you're there..."

Wes looked round to see the Quantum Ranger standing, still morphed, arms folded across 'his' chest, head cocked at an angle that suggested whoever it was behind the helmet found the whole situation amusing.

"...who's that?" Wes finished.

"Power down," said a female voice. As the light flashed, she added, "This was the only way I could guarantee he wouldn't try anything stupid."

Wes felt his jaw hinge open. "Kim?!"

Kim offered a smile. "Good to see you both in one piece."

"OK. Any chance we can swap those long stories?" enquired Taylor.

"Not that your impatient or anything," Danny mumbled.

"The lady has a point," said Ben. "I feel like a mushroom right now."

"Mine can keep until later," Eric put in. "What I think we'd all like to know is where the hell you guys've been." A smile crossed his face. "And what's with the leather?"

Wes opened his mouth to say something.

"Um...excuse me?" said a new voice that instantly reminded Wes of one of the multitude of Silver Guardian secretaries who Eric had sacked prior to the hiring of Gina Thomas.

Looking round, Wes saw the source of the voice - a woman with long, flowing, brown hair and the sort of filmy, white dress that made him instantly think of a bad hippie movie he'd once seen.

"This 'thing' started to make a noise," she said a little helplessly.

Wes glanced at Jen -- no, that didn't make any sense to her either. A glance at the Wild Force Rangers and Kimberly told him they were none the wiser too. Without feeling too much hope, he looked in Eric's direction...

"That should be Lieutenant Detournay," Eric observed mildly.

Wes' jaw dropped. _When did Eric start tolerating people who flap?!_

Eric just smirked and headed in the direction the woman had appeared from.

"Am I the only one wondering which parallel universe I've landed in?" Jen whispered as everyone headed after Eric.

"No," Wes answered, "I'm as puzzled as you are."

__

TO BE CONTINUED...


	4. Long Stories

Disclaimer: Characters and events don't belong to me, they're borrowed from BVE without permission but no harm, no foul, no money made. The exceptions to this are Gina and Ben and assorted minor characters. Gina is mine, Ben belongs to Ekat and the assorted characters belong to themselves -- and many thank yous to you for allowing me to borrow you.

Canon Junkies please note: Because of the way the Identiverse has ended up there are considerable differences between this story and the two episodes 'Reinforcements From The Future I and II'. If I've changed something, it's almost certainly to get it to fit into the universe or to write out a plot hole or to be consistent.

Muchos gracias to Vanessa and Ree for beta'ing this for me. Also thanks to Chris for again spotting my deliberate mistake (!!) and offering me feedback. Lastly -- but by no means leastly -- many, many, MANY thanks to Gamine for being a truly wonderful human being. This story is for you.

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing.

~*~

Long Stories

Eric led the way back to the temple, trying somehow to order his thoughts. On the one hand he was relieved that Kimberly was safe and sound after the battle and he was even more relieved to know that Wes and Jen were also safe and sound. On the other hand, he realised, he was angry. Angry with Wes and Jen for scaring him, angry with himself for being scared...

It was wholly irrational and he knew it, but that didn't seem to prevent it from being present.

With a sigh, Eric entered the temple -- aware of the Pied Piper-like trail of people following him -- and turned his attention from his own problems to the now flickering holo-screen. Pulling the controller from his pocket, he turned it on and the picture suddenly came into focus. There was Lieutenant Detournay.

She lifted an eyebrow, presumably able to see people crowding in behind him. "They're on their way," was all she actually said. "Usual place."

Eric offered a smile. "Thank you."

The lieutenant smiled in return. "Good luck, sir." And with that, she signed off.

"And all that in English means...?" prompted Ben as the holo-screen faded away.

Eric slowly turned to face the gathered throng. "It means," he replied, smiling, "reinforcements are on the way."

~*~

The whole party -- the princess excepted -- went down to the usual time ship landing zone on the beach. Eric guessed that as far as Cole, Alyssa, Danny and Max were concerned, it wasn't so much a desire to meet the new arrivals as prove to themselves this really **was** something even more extraordinary than they normally dealt with.

Eric smiled faintly. You knew your life was weird when extraordinary was what you classed as normal.

"Something funny?" Kimberly asked as the time ship touched down on the beach, kicking up sand as it did so.

Eric shook his head. "Not really."

Conversation was terminated as the airlock of the time ship opened and out came the new arrivals. First out was Trip, but he was closely followed by Lucas and Katie, then a woman with pink hair who looked familiar... Eric found his jaw hinging open as he realised the woman was Nadira in a Time Force uniform. Rounding out the team from the future was Alex.

If Nadira's presence was a surprise, Alex's was a shock, and not a pleasant one. There was little about the other man that Eric liked and an awful lot that he despised, not least of which was the permanent sense that Alex was only telling part of the truth.

"Eric -- good to see you again," said the object of Eric's thoughts.

Eric blinked. Something suddenly dropped into sharp focus. The thing that Alex had so assiduously not been saying on his last visit. "You knew."

Alex looked bemused. "Knew?" he echoed.

"Eric?" Kimberly queried.

"You knew," Eric repeated, more incredulous than angry. "You knew about bel Abis and Lemont... Knew that son of a bitch was after me. You **knew** and you didn't **tell** me!" 

Alex visibly swallowed. "Partially," he admitted cautiously.

Eric almost laughed at the reaction. It said a lot about who he had been -- none of it complimentary. "That's a bullshit answer," he observed. "Either you knew or you didn't -- and since I know you were only telling me part of the story last time you came, like always, I figure..." He shrugged.

Alex looked confused. "You're taking this well."

Eric shrugged again. "Facing up to your past and to your nightmares will do that to you. Besides," he added, putting an arm around Kimberly's shoulders, "it ultimately wasn't without compensations."

Alex looked as though he was about to pass out in relief. Eric found himself smirking. _Revenge,_ he decided, _is definitely sweet sometimes._

Slowly the whole party started to move towards the beach exit.

"So I'm a compensation, am I?" Kimberly commented.

"Uh-huh." Eric smiled and gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze. "And so much more besides."

"And what do I get?" Kimberly asked, a light, teasing tone in her voice.

"Me," Eric answered. He stopped and started to lean down to kiss her.

"Ew!" Max complained. "Get a room!"

Eric rested his forehead against Kimberly's shoulder and laughed.

~*~

Half an hour later, with everyone was safely back at the Animarium, yet another round of introductions was done.

"So what about those long stories everyone's been talking about?" Taylor enquired.

"She has a point," Ben agreed. "I think we're all of us in the dark about something."

"If I may?" Shayla put in. Everyone turned to look at her. "It might be as well to wait until Eric and Kimberly return and..."

"Return?!" said Wes. "I didn't see them go!"

"Where've they gone, anyway?" Max asked.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "You were the one who told them to get a room."

"TMI!" Max covered his ears.

"Good point," said Alex, ignoring Wes, Max and Alyssa.

"So what now?" asked Lucas.

Shayla smiled. "I was about to suggest that perhaps we might have a meal..."

"Good idea!" chimed Max and Danny together.

"Just keep Jen and Lucas away from the cooking," observed Katie.

"Like yours is any better!" Lucas snorted.

"You've not tried Cole's," put in Taylor. "He burns water."

"I do not!" Cole retorted. "And who was it who..."

Shayla just shook her head as almost the entire gathering descended into bickering. Only Ben, Nadira, Alex and Alyssa were left. The princess eyed the two from the future cautiously. "Can you cook?" she asked.

Alex shook his head. "Not one of my skills," he admitted. He then nodded towards the bickering mass. "They just don't know that."

"I've never tried," said Nadira, "but it sounds like fun."

"How about you, Ben?" Alyssa asked.

"I can cook," he admitted sheepishly.

"Then," said Shayla, "let the four of us attend to the meal -- do you mind adjudicating over them?" she added, looking at Alex and inclining her head in the direction of the bickering group.

Alex smiled. "That **is** one of my skills."

~*~

An hour or so later, dusk descended. A fire burned brightly in the fire pit and everyone grouped around it. Looking round, Alex could see the effects of the release of tensions the bickering session had provoked. Everyone looked a little less strung out. It didn't mean they didn't understand the seriousness of the situation -- even the irrepressible Max knew that -- but it did mean they might be better able to deal with the information Alex knew he had to give out.

He was also interested to note how the twos and threes had split out in the group. That Eric and Kimberly were sitting as close as was physically possible was no great surprise. Nor was the fact that Wes and Jen were together, and sitting nearby the other couple. Trip and Nadira, too, was no surprise, but what did surprise Alex was the close proximity of Max, Danny and Lucas. Ben and Taylor -- that was an interesting development. With them were Cole and Alyssa -- another no brainer.

Katie -- who had, at some point, been coerced into helping to serve dinner -- took her seat beside him. Alex found himself smiling a little at that, drawing some measure of comfort from the gesture -- even if Lucas was now giving him that knowing smile again.

"Where's the princess?" Wes asked, cutting across the murmur of conversation.

"Here," Shayla said, entering the circle of light, drawing someone else with her.

Alyssa gasped. "Merrick?"

The someone -- a stockily built, dark-haired man -- inclined his head. "I am here," he agreed. "I believe," he added, meeting Alex's gaze, "that this is something important."

"It is," Alex agreed.

Merrick nodded and took a seat, noticeably apart from everyone else, until the Princess sat down beside him.

"So where do these explanations start?" Taylor asked, for once not sounding as if she was impatient.

"With Nadira and me," said Alex. There were a few bemused gasps at that. Nadira just nodded. "Wes and Jen can fill in the holes in the story as we go." Both nodded. "Nadira?"

"The Mutorgs are my father's creation," she stated. Without pausing to hear any reaction, Nadira ploughed on: "Not long before I was born, he uncovered a cave where there were three imprisoned beings...orgs."

"The Nexus," said Shayla. "It must have been the Nexus."

"The Nexus?" Alex queried.

"It is a ley-line vortex, a place of incredible power. It is the place that all orgs draw their power from. It is also the only place that you could possibly imprison orgs."

"Oh **that** makes sense," snarked Ben. "Lock 'em up with their power supply."

Merrick smiled. "It is not as ridiculous as it sounds -- to actually imprison org spirits requires a tremendous power."

Shayla nodded. "It would also take a tremendous power to free them once they were imprisoned."

Nadira nodded. "That's what my father has. His particular mutation lets him generate bioelectric power. He freed the trapped spirits and in return for allowing them to copy aspects of his mutant DNA, they..." She looked down. "They gave him an even greater ability to hurt other people."

Alex could see Trip gently squeezing Nadira's hand. He decided to take up the explanations. "The Mutorgs -- as we've been able to piece together -- started to track across the world, causing chaos wherever they went but because at the same time Ransik started to make a name for himself and there were sundry other people causing trouble, Time Force had more than enough on its collective plate and the Mutorgs somewhat slipped through the cracks in the system.

"We knew they were out there but because they kept moving around, they kept moving jurisdictions..." Alex shook his head. "Time Force might be one body across the globe but it sure is territorial."

"Sounds like the Cops vs. the FBI vs. the CIA," Eric observed.

Alex nodded. "Pretty much."

"So how did they get here?" asked Danny. "And why?"

"The how is relatively straightforward," Alex answered. "They went through a time hole..."

"Series of time holes," Jen corrected. "They didn't come straight here."

"And you would know that because...?" Taylor asked.

"Because Jen and I have been tracking them," Wes replied.

Taylor subsided.

"As for the why," Alex continued, "we're not exactly sure, but we strongly suspect it's something to do with Biocon."

"Biocon?" queried Cole.

"Another criminal from the thirtieth century," Jen answered. "We hunted him down two months ago."

"Here?" said Alyssa.

"Yep," said Eric.

"So this would be the third bunch of creeps to come back in time, to this area, in less than a year," said Ben.

"You're right," said Alex, nodding. "It's **not** a great record."

"I just wanna know what's so exciting about California," said Ben. "Why do they keep coming here?"

"Ransik just by sheer dumb luck," Alex answered. "Biocon by design and the Mutorgs by design." He sighed. "We don't know if Biocon set up the Mutorgs to be his insurance policy in case something happened to prevent his plans or if the Mutorgs just have the same piece of information as Biocon was working from."

"And that is?" asked Kimberly.

Before Alex could so much as open his mouth, Wes answered, "Rancho Diablo nuclear power plant."

There was a long silence.

"How did you know that?" Alex asked. "We only established that this 'morning'."

Wes and Jen exchanged a look before she answered, "Because we've been some when where the Mutorgs got to it."

A deathly hush followed that sentence.

"You...you mean we lose?" Max asked, his voice devoid of its usual 'bounce'.

"No. Not now." Jen shook her head. "At least," she amended, "we," and she gestured at Wes and herself, "prevented what caused **that** particular future."

"With the rescue," Alyssa realised.

Wes nodded. "As near as we could make out, something went wrong in that battle. The Mutorgs won, got to Rancho Diablo..." He trailed off and spread his hands wide.

"Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl...they all have **nothing** on what could happen if the Mutorgs get to Rancho Diablo," said Alex quietly.

"It's not going to happen," Cole vowed. 

"But how can we stop them?" asked Danny. "We threw everything we had at them this afternoon and we'd have still lost if Wes and Jen hadn't arrived when they did."

"That," said Alex, "is where I have some good news."

"Oh?" queried Ben.

"We have a way to counter act the mutation," Trip informed the group.

"It's a form of plastique," Alex continued. "It explodes and releases a chemical vapour that neutralises the mutant DNA in the Mutorgs -- which would then mean that they can be taken out as any other orgs."

"Taken out?" echoed Eric. "Not 'captured and tried'?" 

"No." Alex looked around the group. "Because of the nature of this situation -- and it was the same with Biocon -- it's 'all means necessary' to stop them from wrecking this time period and basically wiping out the billions and billions of people who live between now and the year 3001."

"Lives are very much at stake," Shayla mused. "And if, as you say," she added, looking at Nadira, "this trio were imprisoned in the Nexus, then their peers have already tried them."

"They're not going to get away," Taylor decided.

"We'll find them and stop them," Ben agreed.

"One good thing," said Max. "If we're already facing the end of the world, it can't get any worse!"

"Max!" The objections came from all sides.

Alex opened his mouth to point out that Max was tempting fate.

"I believe," said Merrick, "it has just become worse."

In his arms, Shayla had fainted.

~*~

Taylor watched as Merrick and Alyssa attempted to bring the princess round from her faint, but she knew -- as did Merrick, she suspected -- what this was about. _Please be wrong..._

"What's wrong?" Ben asked quietly.

"It's nothing," Taylor answered automatically.

"You're as white as a sheet," Ben objected. "What's wrong?"

She glanced in Ben's direction and saw genuine concern in his expression. "I can't...it's..." She looked back in Shayla's direction. "Complicated."

"Try me," said Ben.

Taylor opened her mouth to answer but never spoke as at that moment, Shayla regained consciousness.

"Princess are you all right?" asked Alyssa.

"My lady?" Merrick enquired.

"I am...fine," Shayla answered.

Glancing around at the rest of the gathering, Taylor could see that no-one believed that. "Princess...what is it?" she asked.

Allowing Merrick to gently help her up, Shayla sighed. "I am not sure."

"About what?" Alex asked, voicing the confusion of the Time Force officers.

"I have a...connection to the orgs," Shayla replied softly. "It is something that I cannot explain more precisely than that. It gives me a certain amount of knowledge of their doings..."

"And they've just done something," Alex surmised.

"I fear the Mutorgs have just joined forces with our Master Org. It is not just three we must stop...they now have an army."

_TO BE CONTINUED..._

~*~

Windscale, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are three particularly well-known nuclear accidents. Windscale (now known as Sellafield in the UK) was a fire in the reactor room of the facility on October 7th 1957. Three Mile Island was on March 28th 1979 and was the most serious nuclear accident in the USA, involving a partial core meltdown. Chernobyl was April 26th 1986 and was arguably the worst nuclear accident in the world to date, when the core of Reactor No.4 suffered a complete meltdown and subsequently exploded. A google search can provide you with links to more information. 


	5. Preparation

Disclaimer: Characters and situations are borrowed from BVE without permission but as they're not using them, do you suppose they'll mind? Ben Johnson is borrowed, with grateful thanks, from Ekat.

With very, very grateful thanks to Vanessa for once more beta'ing (on very short notice!) and also to Gamine (extremely glad you're better!) for also beta'ing. This is still for you, though!

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing; glad you guys are enjoying it so far.

~*~

Preparation

There was a lengthy and uncomfortable silence after Shayla's revelation. It was finally broken, typically, by Max.

"Well maybe they do have an army. We're the Power Rangers and Power Rangers never give up."

Sundry groans met that particular comment, notably from Danny, but it was a timely reminder.

"Max is right," Shayla agreed. "It will be difficult"

"But it was always going to be that," Alex finished.

"I think," she continued, "that now we know the full story, perhaps now is a chance for us to rest. I feel that they will not make their next move until daylight."

"The Mutorgs **will** move at night," Jen mused. "But never immediately after a battle. They need to...recharge."

"Sounds like a plan, then," Alex agreed.

~*~

Half an hour later, blankets were passed out and everyone made the best of the cramped situation.

Kimberly found herself leaning against Eric -- not a position she was about to complain about -- with Wes and Jen very close beside.

"So...you two are...?" began Wes.

Kimberly felt Eric's chest move as he chuckled. "No," came the sarcastic retort. "We're still not speaking to each other because I'm being an idiot."

"Well you said that not us," said Jen. "But I'm very glad to see you together."

"Same here," Wes agreed, still looking a little sheepish. "But," he added, "if you're both here, where's Alice?"

"Staying with Rocky and Aisha deSantos," Kimberly answered. "Because of what today was supposed to be, we'd arranged that anyway."

"Today?" Jen queried. "And why **do** you have the Quantum Morpher?"

"And what was with the stick?" Wes added.

"Tell you what," Eric answered. "We'll trade. You tell us what happened with the trial and what is with all this leather," Kimberly snickered, "and we'll tell you what's been going on while you've been away."

Kimberly watched as Wes and Jen exchanged looks. "Deal," Jen agreed. "You go first?"

Kimberly tilted her head until she could look up at Eric's face. "Where do you want to start?" she asked.

"With my birthday, I guess. That was pretty much when everything started." Eric gave a huff of humourless laughter. "One hell of a present -- having your house firebombed..."

Kimberly listened as Eric related the events of that horrendous week some five weeks ago. By the flickering firelight she could see Wes and Jen's expressions rapidly becoming more and more alarmed as the tale progressed.

"Eric I..." Wes eventually began as Eric finished.

"Are you..." But Jen couldn't finish her sentence either.

"You don't have to say anything," Eric replied, "and as for all right -- it's a relative term." Kimberly felt him shrug. "It forced me to face a lot of shit and I'm probably a better person for it. Hell," he added, "if I knew this would be the end result, I'd probably go through it all again."

"What, all of it?" Kimberly couldn't help but ask.

"Well...so I'd rather skip the hallucinations and shit," Eric admitted. "But most of it."

"And physically?" Wes asked. "How's your leg healed?"

"Fine," Eric answered, "so the doc told me this morning when he took the cast off. Today was supposed to be the first time I actually had a chance to do something with my fiancée that didn't involve sponge baths."

Kimberly giggled. "I didn't hear you complain about that."

"OK, that really **is** too much information," Wes complained.

"So how about you guys?" Kimberly asked.

"Ah yeah. The trial of the century," Jen replied, a little sarcastically. "It came out OK in the end but..." Jen shook her head.

Kimberly could see the shadows and fears still lurking in Jen's expression.

"And you should have seen the defence lawyer," Wes added. "God what an asshole!"

"Oh?" Eric enquired.

"He spent a week producing people who swore blind that Merle Askot was humanitarian of the millennium and a scientific klutz. Then when Jen took the stand, he tried to put her on trial."

"And that's **legal** in the future?" Kimberly queried. "Geez I'm glad this guy wasn't Dirk's attorney."

Jen smiled a little and shook her head. "No, it's not strictly legal -- and he got what was coming to him."

"Oh?"

Kimberly saw Wes smile proudly. "Pieter van Zyl -- the DA -- arranged for a demonstration in court to prove that Jen **was** Chrissy."

"How?" Eric asked.

"They did a memory recovery process." Jen grimaced. "It was **not** fun -- but... I'd go through it again in a heartbeat just to see the smug expression wiped off Carmen's face."

Kimberly grinned. "And you now remember Angel Grove?"

Jen nodded. "Not everything -- but...enough. More than enough to prove Askot did what we knew she did."

"Once that happened," Wes added, "that was it. Askot lost."

"Good," said Eric. "So how'd you end up after the Mutorgs?"

"We were the best people for the job, I guess," said Jen. "It needed to be a two-man team..."

"And Alex knows Jen and I work well together. Anything else would have been a potential risk."

Kimberly settled back against Eric's chest. "That makes sense," she agreed.

"Tired?" Eric asked.

"What can I say?" Kimberly answered. "It's been one hell of a day."

Eric gently tucked the blanket around her as he chuckled again. "Sure has."

Beside them, Wes and Jen both started to settle down for the night. In good company, comfortable and exhausted, Kimberly found herself rapidly drifting off to sleep.

Distantly, she heard Eric suddenly squeak. "Hey -- you never said what was with the leather!"

"Eric," came the response from Wes, "when in post-apocalyptic Rome, do as the post-apocalyptic Romans do."

"And go to sleep," Jen added.

Good idea, Kimberly decided and finally relaxed into sleep.

~*~

Alex couldn't help but feel a pang of envy as he watched Wes and Jen caught up with Eric and Kimberly. It was hard to credit just how different Eric, in particular, was as compared to the man he'd been five weeks earlier. His own words of more than a week ago came back to him: _Everyone's moved on. Everyone but me._

"Penny for them?" Katie asked, unfolding a blanket and draping it around his shoulders as well as her own.

Alex smiled a little, switching his attention from the past to a possible future. "Just thinking it's time for me to finally move on, too."

Katie gave him a scrutinising look. "And just what does that mean?"

"Well it's not going to involve Deregovian Brandy, that's for damn sure," he replied, smiling again as the look of relief passed across Katie's face.

"So what are you planning?" she pressed.

"I'm going to leave Time Force...take a few months to figure out who Alex Collins is when you strip away the bullshit."

"And then what?"

"I don't know," Alex admitted, "but...would you be willing to find out with me?"

Katie offered him a smile. "I'd love to."

~*~

Ben looked around the temple and quickly realised that everyone else was either asleep or close to it. Which was considerably better than he was currently managing. He was too keyed up to sleep.

For the first time since joining the Silver Guardians, Ben knew he had been given the whole story and in some ways, he wished he was out of this particular loop. How could Eric, Wes and Jen stand this on a regular basis? Knowing the fate of the world was on your shoulders?

"Hey." 

Ben started at the voice. Looking round, he found Taylor standing behind him.

"Not sleepy?" she asked.

Ben shook his head. "No."

"May I?" Taylor asked, gesturing to the empty space beside him.

He shrugged. "Sure."

Taylor sat down beside him. "Thanks...I... I owe you an apology."

Ben blinked. "What for?"

"For being a bitch," she answered.

Ben smiled at her. "It's OK. Guess you weren't having a good day."

She smiled back. "Understatement of the decade."

"And I could have been nicer about it all," Ben admitted. He held out a hand. "Friends?"

Taylor accepted the proffered hand. "Friends."

~*~

As the sun rose over the Animarium, the whole temple was a bustle with people moving around, getting ready for the day ahead.

With his status as only just out of plaster, and after a night spent sleeping on hard cobblestones, Eric wisely chose a seat out of the way of the general flow and observed events.

In one corner of the temple, Jen and Alyssa were giving Kimberly a few quick refresher tips for fighting. Eric felt that should have been him but knew there was little chance of him being able to manage something that active. In another corner, the self-dubbed tech heads -- Lucas, Trip, Danny and Max -- were going over the layout of Rancho Diablo control room. Alex had assigned them the task of keeping the reactor shut down and the Mutorgs -- and whatever minions Master Org might have supplied -- out of the control room.

In a third corner, Eric could see Ben, Taylor, Wes, Cole, Merrick and Alex discussing the best possible methods for getting the Mutorgs away from Rancho Diablo so that the plastique could be used without any fear of causing the same effect as they were trying to prevent. Katie and Nadira both appeared from somewhere and joined that group.

"You wish you could help," observed Shayla, sitting down beside him.

"I feel useless," Eric admitted.

Shayla opened her mouth to reply, but Ben beat her to it: "Boss get your lazy ass over here!"

"Huh?" Eric blinked.

"It seems," said Shayla softly, "that perhaps others do not consider you useless."

~*~

Kimberly watched as Eric slowly crossed the temple to join Alex's strategy discussions and sighed in relief.

"Earth to Kim?" said Jen waving a hand in front of her face.

Kimberly started. "I'm sorry -- what?"

Jen just smiled. "Eric'll be OK."

"I know that."

"And now he's doing something..." Alyssa began with a smile.

"I'm sorry." Kimberly looked apologetic. "I haven't been with it so far, have I?" Neither Jen nor Alyssa said anything -- and said it loudly. "I'm sorry."

Jen took pity on her. "You're doing fine," she said.

"Considering you're not a martial artist," Alyssa added, "and you've not done this in..."

"A long time," Kimberly supplied, not even sure she wanted to work out the exact time period.

"And considering you've been distracted," Alyssa continued, nodding, "I would hate to have ever been on the wrong end of you when you were the Pink Ranger."

"Thanks -- I think."

~*~

Shayla looked around the complex, even as Eric had been doing half an hour earlier. There was an air of purpose hanging over the temple ruins that made Shayla smile. The task ahead of them might be impossible but no-one was prepared to give up.

Unbidden as ever, a vision came. The power plant. Orgs. Master Org himself was there. Putrids. The trio of Mutorgs...

She wasn't even aware of swaying until she felt hands steadying her. Blinking, she found herself once more being steadied by Merrick while everyone else was grouped around her.

"Princess?" asked Cole.

"It is begun."

TO BE CONTINUED...


	6. Sacrifice

Disclaimer: The vast majority of characters don't belong to me, they're borrowed from BVE without permission, but since they're not using them, you think they'd mind me borrowing? Ben Johnson is borrowed with grateful thanks from Ekat. Anyone else is the product of my twisted little brain -- you're welcome to borrow, but please ask me first.

Canon Junkies please note: Because of the way the Identiverse has ended up there are considerable differences between this story and the two episodes 'Reinforcements From The Future I and II'. If I've changed something, it's almost certainly to get it to fit into the universe or to write out a plot hole or to be consistent.

Muchos gracias to Ree and Gamine for beta'ing this for me. Also thanks to Chris for offering me some tremendously useful feedback and pointers when dealing with a massive cast. For Gamine.

Please offer feedback, it tells me how I'm doing -- and many apologies for the lateness of this part!

~*~

Sacrifice

Rancho Diablo should have been a pretty location, Alex mused. It was on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay and set in some very attractive woodland. The only thing spoiling the location was the dozens of Putrids swarming over the mothballed power plant.

"OK. Lucas, Trip, Danny, Max -- you have the control room, you know what to do," he said. The four named all nodded. "Alyssa, Kim, Jen, you're backup. We need to get the buildings clear of all Putrids and Orgs."

"Gotcha." Kimberly nodded.

"Everyone else -- you know who you're paired with and where you're clearing. Let's get moving."

~*~

Shayla watched as Eric visibly controlled the impulse to pace.

"It is not easy," she observed, "being the one left behind."

"I never thought it was," Eric answered. "I've just...never been the one left behind."

Shayla nodded. "That much is obvious, I am afraid." She smiled kindly. "Kimberly will return safely. She has much to act as incentive on that count."

To Shayla's amusement, Eric blushed at that comment. "I just wish there was something I could do."

Shayla's amusement faded. "But, sadly, there is nothing we -- either of us -- may do now but wait."

Eric snorted softly. "Oh great."

Shayla couldn't disagree.

~*~

Merrick watched the pink-haired woman he had been paired with for this mission and shook his head slightly. As the most experienced member of the clearing party, it had been obvious for him to be paired with Nadira -- Eric had been right when he'd suggested that and Merrick was not about to argue with that statement. He mightn't know a lot about Eric Myers but it was palpably obvious that the other man was a seasoned warrior, whose judgement the rest of the Time Force officers clearly respected. No, the problem came with Nadira herself: Merrick was just not sure what to make of her.

"Am I doing something wrong?" she asked, concern written large on her face.

__

And that, Merrick decided, _is what is so strange -- I have never met anyone so worried they're doing something wrong or so concerned to do things 'right'._ "No -- you're doing fine."

"I just...feel as though it's my fault," Nadira admitted.

Behind his helmet, Merrick blinked, puzzled. "Why? You said yourself last night that it was your father who created these monstrosities, not you."

"I know." Nadira sighed. "But I have a lot to make up for on my own...mistakes I've made...and I know it's silly, but...this feels like another one of them. And I want to show people that I'm not like that any more..."

"You will get there," Merrick answered, gently cutting her off. "Your first step is believing it yourself." He frowned. It sounded like a piece of advice that someone had given to him not all that long ago, when the Zen Aku curse was finally lifted. "And, I believe your friends already believe it." Yes, that was definitely advice he had been given. "They believe you -- and trust you." Perhaps it was advice he should act on. "As do I."

Nadira smiled a little. "Thank you."

There was a soft sound behind them. "Uh-oh."

~*~

For a big man, Danny could move with a considerable amount of stealth when the situation warranted it. And right now was definitely one of those times. The whole plant was crawling with Putrids and he knew that sooner or later they'd have to face them, but if they could get up to the control room undetected that was all to the good.

Over the comm. system, he heard Merrick report,

"Putrids on the east side of the complex -- proceeding with clean-up."

"The control room should be right around this corner," Lucas observed.

"Uh-huh." Danny nodded. "I hear Putrids though -- and lots of them."

"Well -- not like we weren't gonna have to face 'em," Lucas replied. "Max, Trip, get to the control room. Danny and I will clear the way for you."

Part of Danny rebelled at being ordered around like that, but the rest of him knew Lucas was right. _And I'm guessing he knows more about planning an assault like this than I do._

"Ready?" Lucas asked.

"Ready."

~*~

Alyssa took point as she, Jen and Kimberly made their way into the main building. Stopping at a hallway intersection, she could hear a swarm of Putrids just around the corner.

  
"What's up?" Jen asked.

"Putrids," Alyssa answered.

"Which way?" Kimberly asked.

Alyssa inclined her head to the left. "Just round there."

"Well we're not going to get this done standing here," Jen observed. "Ready?"

"Yep." Kimberly's answer was firm. "What're we waiting for? Let's take out the trash!"

Alyssa blinked. That was somehow the last thing she was expecting from the temporary Quantum Ranger, particularly given how distracted she'd been first thing that morning. How could she possibly be ready?

"Alyssa?" Jen asked. "Ready?"

"Of course." Alyssa attempted to dismiss her own misgivings.

"Then let's do this."

Jen took the lead, rounding the corner into a head on confrontation with what seemed -- to Alyssa -- to be an army of Putrids, and then there wasn't time to worry about whether Kimberly was up to this task.

Wave after wave of the Org foot soldiers swarmed forwards. Alyssa found herself falling into a routine of kick, block, punch, duck. It wouldn't have been so bad had they been able to use blasters but there was too great a risk of stray sparks striking something and starting a chain reaction, so all the fighting had to be open hand, and even morphed, she found her stamina being tested.

"Well c'mon big and ugly!" Kimberly goaded.

Alyssa looked up to see the temporary Quantum Ranger apparently surrounded. Before she could even so much as open her mouth to speak a warning, Kimberly grabbed the nearest Putrid by the arm. Forcing it to bend, she rolled over its back and returned to her feet, outside the circle of Putrids, kicking the one she'd used as she did so.

Alyssa stared open mouthed.

The two nearest Putrids were first to react to Kimberly's sudden escape. They each grabbed one of her arms but before they could even think about what to do next, Kimberly was up and over in a tight somersault that tore her arms free of their grip and landed her behind them. Almost without pause, she was up in a split kick that caught both Putrids squarely in their heads.

"Holy..." But Alyssa's exclamation was cut off as one of the Putrids she had temporarily forgotten attacked her.

The blow sent her stumbling while a well-placed leg sweep sent her sprawling.

"Oh no ya don't!"

Alyssa was aware of a red-and-black blur passing over her and the next thing she knew, Kimberly had cleared the area immediately around her, enabling her to get back to her feet.

"You OK?" Kimberly asked.

"Yeah -- thanks."

"Keep sharp!" Jen advised. "We've got a lot of work ahead of us."

~*~

"I've never seen so many Putrids!" Cole exclaimed, kicking yet another Putrid back.

"I guess your Master Org figures this is his best shot at world domination," Wes replied.

Cole grunted. "Probably." Another foot soldier crumpled into a heap. "Why do they want to rule the world?"

Wes threw the Putrid attempting to attack him into three of its compatriots. "I can't say about Master Org or the Mutorgs, but both Ransik and Biocon wanted revenge."

"But why? What good is revenge?"

There was a pause in conversation as they both joined forces to deal with a pair of particularly persistent Putrids, which finished off this particular force. 

"I don't know," Wes finally answered. "I guess they think it'll somehow make them feel better."

Cole just shook his head. It was an alien concept to him and he suspected he'd probably never truly understand it. "Do you ever get used to this?"

"Get used to what?"

"This." Cole gestured around them. "The...the fighting -- and knowing that people want you dead."

There was another pause, this time presumably caused by Wes debating that point. "I think I've accepted it. Accepted that there are people out there who want to take this all away from everyone and accepted that I've been put in a position to do something to stop them." 

There wasn't much Cole could say in response to that.

"C'mon," said Wes. "We've gotta find those Mutorgs."

~*~

Ben shook his head in disgust as yet another wave of Putrids swarmed forwards.

"They don't stop coming, do they?"

Taylor snorted. "Did you expect them to?" 

"I can hope."

Taylor snorted again -- although this time, Ben knew she was smiling beneath her helmet. "How about ya stop hoping and ya hit them?" she suggested.

"Your wish is my command." 

Ben suited actions to words and started tearing into the nearest group of foot soldiers, aware of Taylor following his lead.

"You think," she said almost conversationally, "when this all gets done..." a Putrid went flying, "...we could maybe..." another Putrid went crashing to the ground, "...go out for a drink?"

Ben found himself smirking as he super-kicked a Putrid into the two immediately behind it. "Sounds like a date," he agreed. Then he frowned. "Did I really just make a date in the middle of the end of the world?"

~*~

Danny leaned against the control room door and sighed in relief.

"Good job, guys," said Lucas. "That's the control room secured."

"Yeah!" Max bounced.

  
Danny just shook his head. Sometimes Max had just a little too much energy.

"How about the reactor?" Lucas asked.

Trip, who was already furiously hammering away at the computer keyboard didn't spare him a glance. "Looking now."

Danny held his breath.

Minutes ticked by.

Trip's frantic movements finally slowed. "Guys?"

Danny gulped.

"We got it."

It took a moment for the smile in Trip's voice to penetrate. "You mean they haven't done anything yet?" Danny queried.

"I mean the reactor's still locked down and cold."

Danny found his knees giving way and he slid down the door.

"Now all we gotta do," said Lucas, "is keep it that way."

"No problems," said Max with a whoop.

~*~

"Reactor's secured," Katie reported.

Alex smiled in terse relief. "That's half the job done. I'd be happier if I knew where the Mutorgs were."

"We'll find them," Katie promised. "Meantime -- is it just me, or..."

"Or have we not seen hide or hair of any Putrids?" Alex finished.

A sinister, female laugh filled the air. Alex felt the hairs at the nape of his neck stand on end. He **knew** that laugh.

"You didn't really think," said a voice, "that Time Force could lock me away?"

__

It can't be... Slowly, Alex turned to face the direction the voice was coming from. "Arachna."

The female mutant spy smiled. "Not just Arachna, now, Major," she spat. "I have some new friends."

Almost as if by magic, the three Mutorgs materialised.

"Oh holy hell..." Katie mumbled.

"It looks like we win," said Master Org, coming to stand beside Arachna.

~*~

The vision came as a nasty surprise and in harsh and painful clarity.

Alex and Katie surrounded.

The three Mutorgs.

Master Org.

A female with silvery-hair and mis-matched eyes.

It was a trap!

Shayla gasped, coming back to herself to find she was lying on the temple floor, Eric hovering beside her, concern very evident in his expression.

"It's a trap!" she murmured.

"What is?"

"The power plant," Shayla answered. "It is a trap...oh my..."

The colour drained from Eric's face. "No..."

~*~

There was something wrong. Nadira could feel it. Although there were plenty of Putrids to be defeated, it didn't **feel** right. She knew this tactic...

"Merrick!" she yelled, urgently.

The Lunar Wolf Ranger looked up from the group of Putrids he was currently fighting. "What is it?" he asked. "Are you all right?"

"Have you ever seen this many foot soldiers?" she asked, ignoring his question.

There was a pause and another Putrid bit the dust. "Now that you mention it, no -- it is rather strange."

"It's a trap," Nadira answered. "This whole place is a trap...or a set up..."

"Are you sure?" Merrick sounded a little sceptical.

"Positive," she replied. "My father once used this tactic...he sent one of his mutants and a whole army of his foot soldiers to distract the rangers while he raided the Biolab headquarters... This is a set up!" The more she thought about it, the more she was sure.

There was a long pause, presumably while Merrick contacted one of the other rangers via the comm. system. "No-one has reported any sign of the Mutorgs," he finally said. "I believe you are right."

~*~

Jen surveyed the scene; the last of the Putrids finally dealt with -- at least in this area. Something wasn't right about this.

"That was too easy," said Kimberly, voicing Jen's own fears.

  
"Easy?!" Alyssa shook her head. "If this was easy..."

"And you don't think it's strange that we haven't heard anything about the Mutorgs yet?" Jen countered.

"I guess." Alyssa sighed. "So what do we do now?"

Before Jen could say anything, Wes' voice came over the comm. system.

"Has anyone heard anything from Katie or Alex?"

"What's up Wes?" Jen asked.

"Not sure," came the answer she didn't want to hear. "But I have one of those hunches."

~*~

"So easy to distract," Master Org gloated.

"And I thought you were the intelligent one," Arachna snorted.

Alex said nothing. There was nothing to say in this situation. It would only be a matter of time before the other rangers realised there was something drastically wrong, but by then it would be too late. There had to be some way out of this.

"Not so cocky now," Arachna continued. "No threats this time? I'm disappointed."

"Life is full of disappointments," Alex answered.

The mutant spat at him. "I'm gonna enjoy ripping you limb from limb for what you did to Jack."

"Oh please. You're Biocon's revenge?" Alex snorted and rolled his eyes, feigning a lack of concern. "I've had more threatening hot baths."

The Mutorg's blow was not unexpected, but it still sent him doubling over, winded and wheezing.

"You will pay," Arachna hissed. "You and Time Force and the rest of your pathetic race."

"No!"

Before Alex could say anything, Katie had launched herself at Arachna. The next moment seemed to unfold in complete slow motion. The Mutorg with the batwings -- Kired, Alex thought -- stepped in between Katie and Arachna. He caught Katie in mid-flight and to Alex's total horror, simply pivoted and flung her, like a rag-doll, into the hard, concrete wall of a nearby storage bunker.

Alex felt his heart stop at the audible crack that sounded as Katie's head struck the concrete. The concrete itself bore the scar of the impact as a crack spider-webbed its way across the wall's surface even as Katie landed in a rapidly demorphing, unconscious heap.

"See?" Arachna asked mildly. "You cannot win. You are history."

~*~

Kimberly was about to open her mouth to suggest that at least one group should head to where Alex and Katie were supposed to be when a piercing scream sounded over the comm. system.

"Oh my..." Trip's voice sounded faint. "That's Katie!"

"Who's closest to where Alex and Katie were clearing?" Kimberly found herself asking.

"That would be us," said Wes. "Cole and I are on our way."

"We're also close," put in Taylor. "We're on our way."

"What about the rest of us?" Max asked.

"We keep doing what we have been," Kimberly answered. "Until we know for sure that there is no threat here I'm damned if I'm letting them win."

~*~

Alex felt a cold anger burn through his veins.

"You win nothing," he hissed.

Arachna laughed. "And what will you do about it, Major Collins?" she sneered. "You're pathetic, weak and outnumbered."

He straightened, a plan rapidly forming. "I'd agree on the outnumbered. But the rest -- you only wish."

~*~

"Goddamn!" Ben's exclamation was soft but lacked nothing in feeling for all that.

Taylor couldn't help but agreed as she studied the scene. The three Mutorgs, Master Org and a woman she didn't recognise clearly had Alex surrounded. A few yards away, she spotted Katie's crumpled, unconscious form.

"Oh man..." Cole murmured as he and Wes joined them.

"This sucks," Wes observed.

"No shit," said Ben. "Question is; what do we do?"

~*~

Out of the corner of his eye, Alex saw Wes and Cole arrive on the scene. That was good. The final pieces of his plan fell into place. _Now!_

He met Arachna's gaze. "You fool."

She laughed once more. "You might wish to reconsider that -- there are five of us and one of you...and your girlfriend's all broken."

The cold flame of anger burned harder. His hand unobtrusively brushed where the plastique was tucked into his equipment belt. "And you think I'm not going to make you pay for that, Arachna? I've told you once. I don't like people trying to kill me or mine."

~*~

Kimberly wished she had a Putrid to hand to beat the crap out of. Eric's inability to do nothing was clearly infectious. "What's going on?" she finally asked.

"Not sure," came Taylor's answer. "They have Alex surrounded but...it's difficult to tell what's going on beyond that."

"They?" Kimberly echoed.

"The Mutorgs, Master Org and some woman...no wait; Master Org is leaving."

"Can you describe the woman?" queried Lucas.

"She's pale, long silvery hair...statuesque."

To Kimberly's surprise, Lucas swore vehemently. "Lucas?"

"That's Arachna..."

"And she is?"

"A woman with a grudge," Lucas replied.

"Oh my God!" Wes exclaimed. "He's not..."

~*~

"You have the man you came for," Master Org stated. "I know that when you have finished, I will have what I came for."

"Thank you, Master Org," Arachna replied. "A pleasure doing business with you."

Master Org smiled. "Goodbye, Time Force Pest." And with that, the current Org leader teleported out.

"Talking's over," Arachna stated, even before Master Org had fully left.

Alex smiled, fingers finding where the plastique's detonator was clipped to his belt. "I **hoped** you'd say that."

__

Please let this work...

~*~

"Wes? What's going on?"

But Kimberly's query went unanswered.

Wes could only stare in mute horror as the scene unfolded.

The Mutorgs closed in.

Alex lunged for the woman -- Arachna.

There was a pause.

And then the quintet vanished in a ferocious fireball.

A moment later and the explosion sounded.

__

TO BE CONTINUED...


	7. Every New Beginning

Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine (they're either borrowed from BVE without permission or borrowed from Ekat with grateful thanks) although the situation is now mine. The poem spoken at the end also does not belong to me (would that I could write so eloquently) -- that's borrowed from James Johnson/Stephanie Music, again without permission. Lastly, the quote Jen produces (and the chapter title) belong to Semisonic, from their song 'Closing Time' (if you don't know the song, I highly recommend it!). No harm, no foul and certainly no money made.

See the end for my thank yous.

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I've done.

~*~

Every New Beginning...

Katie felt herself slowly drift back to full consciousness.

She was puzzled. What had happened? She remembered arriving at the power plant and then morphing but after that... Just a big black nothing.

"Kittie?" Jen's voice was soft, and her use of the name Katie had answered to as a very, very young child only served to emphasise that something was drastically wrong.

She tried to open her eyes, but that was when the headache made itself known. "Ow," she murmured weakly. "Wha' 'appen?"

"It's a long story," Jen answered, "but you're going to be OK."

Katie wanted to ask more but the pain was blinding now. It felt as if her head was going to explode at any second. So much so that she was barely aware of a hypospray being pressed against her neck. It only really dawned on her that someone had sedated her as the last shreds of consciousness fled.

When she finally came round again, she had the sense that time had elapsed since the previous waking moment.

"Katie?"

Time **and** distance. She managed to crack her eyes open a little to prove to herself that yes, the speaker was Eric. Sure enough, when her eyes could finally be persuaded to focus, the person-shaped blur beside her resolved itself into Eric. She started to open her mouth, but he shook his head.

"Shh -- just rest," he advised. "You're going to be OK."

Confused, and still headachy, Katie found herself drifting back into unconsciousness once more.

~*~

Eric watched as the sedative did its work once more and Katie fell asleep. How had things gone so far wrong?

Subdued voices in the temple courtyard told him that everyone was now finally back from Rancho Diablo. He headed out of the little room where Katie was lying to find everyone clustered around the fire-pit.

"It's done," Kimberly announced, as he joined the group. "The last Putrid's been taken care of, the Mutorgs are done with..."

"Alex made sure of that," said Wes quietly.

"What happened?" Eric asked. "Danny was...kinda confused."

"Danny didn't know," Danny put in. "I'm still not sure I do."

"They had him trapped," Ben answered, his normally cheerful voice roughened by shock and emotion. "The three Mutorgs and this woman."

"Arachna," Lucas supplied. "She was one of the links in the chain to tracking down Biocon and Merle Askot."

"They started to close in on him," Taylor continued, taking up Ben's explanation. "He must have had the plastique's detonator in his hand or something."

"He just...lunged forward," said Cole, clearly shell-shocked. "He grabbed at the...Arachna and then..."

"He detonated the plastique," Wes finished.

Eric blinked, the implications of Wes' words taking a little time to sink in. "He..." But there were no words. 

"I should have realised sooner," Nadira murmured.

"It's not your fault," said Merrick gently.

"There wasn't anything we could have done," Ben mumbled.

"You don't think..." Jen began.

Wes shook his head. "No."

Eric frowned; there was more to that half-asked question than he knew. He resolved to find out about it later. "So what happens now?"

"I guess," said Lucas reluctantly, "that someone needs to get in touch with Time Force...and Alex's family."

~*~

Katie woke again. This time, unlike the last, she felt clear-headed. No pain, no aches.

"Katie?" Shayla drifted into view. "How're you feeling?"

Katie frowned. "I...don't know," she admitted. "Weird."

"No pain?" Shayla queried.

"No...but..." Katie looked a little self-conscious. "I do feel kinda hungry."

Shayla smiled. "You've been sleeping for three days," she replied. "That is to be expected."

"Three days?" Fear washed over her. "What happened?"

Shayla's smile turned sad. "It is a long story, Katie," she replied. "And one I will not tell you on an empty stomach."

"I remember going to the power plant... Then nothing."

"It will keep, Katie," said Shayla firmly. "Let me fetch you some soup and once you have eaten it, I will tell you."

Katie had to settle for that, but the nameless fear that something serious had happened during the gap in her memories meant that she couldn't enjoy the light broth that Shayla brought her. Somewhat to her surprise, she found she couldn't finish the bowlful.

The princess just smiled. "If that's all you can manage, then that is enough for now. Are you comfortable?"

"Please...what's happened?" Katie asked, even as she nodded.

Shayla took a seat beside the bed and folded her hands daintily into her lap. "You say you remember arriving at the power plant?"

"Yes."

"And that is the last thing you remember?"

"Yes." Katie knew Shayla was stalling but she couldn't see a way around it.

"You were partnered with Alex," Shayla stated.

"No..." The denial was whispered. It couldn't be that. Shouldn't be that. He couldn't be gone. "Not Alex..."

"You were cornered by the Mutorgs, Master Org and a woman by the name of Arachna."

"Nonono..."

But no matter how hard Katie tried to deny it, she **knew** Shayla was telling her the truth, almost as if her subconscious remembered events even if her conscious mind refused to.

"We do not know how you were injured," Shayla continued softly.

Katie's eyes glazed over as the memory suddenly burst forth. "One of them hit Alex," she murmured softly. "He was unpowered...they would kill him...no point calling for help...that would have killed him too...had to be me...had to do something..."

Arachna's leering, jeering face. Katie could see it with perfect clarity. She could feel her blood boiling as the Mutorg buried its fist in Alex's stomach.

__

"You will pay," Arachna hissed. "You and Time Force and the rest of your pathetic race."

"I had to protect him," Katie murmured. "I've never wanted to kill someone...not like that...never before..."

She started forward, intending to wipe the leer from Arachna's face. The batwinged Mutorg intercepted her. She could feel him literally catch her in mid-flight, turn and fling her away like she was no more than a piece of trash. There was an almost agonising moment of nothing and then...

"...I must have hit the concrete bunker...don't remember..." Katie trailed off. "He's dead. Isn't he?"

Shayla nodded. "Yes."

"I failed."

Shayla reached out and took hold of one of Katie's hands. "No. You are here. Which is what he wanted, I feel sure."

"But he's dead," she said tonelessly.

"Do you want me to tell you what happened?" Shayla asked.

Katie swallowed. "Please."

"You are thinking that it was the Mutorgs or Arachna who killed him," Shayla replied. "But that is not so." She squeezed the hand she was holding. "It was the other way around."

Katie stared in blank non-comprehension. "What?"

"Alex made the best of what should have been a hopeless situation. He carried out his part of the plan." Shayla paused. "It might sound cold comfort to you now," she continued softly, "but he did his job, and above all, he protected his family."

The emphasis on the word family caught Katie unawares. "What?"

"You and Alex were involved, you not?" Shayla asked gently. "You were planning on making a life together?" Katie nodded slowly, not seeing the connection. "You were...intimate?" Again Katie nodded slowly. "Then...the Wildzords are right."

Katie felt her skin grow cold. She had a nasty feeling that she **knew** what the princess was so delicately not saying -- and yet it couldn't be that. Shouldn't be that.

"You are pregnant," Shayla finally said.

"I...but..." It was too much.

Katie fainted.

~*~

Alyssa wandered aimlessly through the jungle of the Animarium. The last three days had been strange, and it wasn't just the fact that the Time Force rangers -- or at least, those who didn't have homes in Silverhills -- had been staying here while they waited for Katie to finally wake up.

If she finally woke up.

Alyssa shivered. She had known, on one level at any rate, that being a ranger was not without its perils. That every battle, there was a chance that you might die. But knowing it and comprehending it were two very different things.

Alex had died. Katie had been gravely hurt.

And suddenly, what had been almost a hobby had turned serious. And Alyssa wasn't sure what that meant for her or for the rest of the rangers.

~*~

Nadira leaned back against the foot of a giant tree, trying to comprehend everything that had gone on in the last three days.

It seemed as if Merrick's words at the power plant really had been true. When Lucas had contacted TFHQ to tell them about what had occurred, she had been told that Alex had already made plans for her to be permanently seconded from the academy to Covert Operations. She would serve out the rest of her training period as an active officer, which -- as Trip had told her afterwards -- was not unheard of in the case of a cadet of either exceptional promise or unusual skills. And Alex's recommendation had cited both.

He had believed in her.

He had seen beyond her father and seen her.

Oddly, Nadira found herself smiling a little at that. Of all the people she had considered, Alex had to have been the least likely member of Time Force to see that. After all, it was partially by her hand that her father had been able to strike Alex down at the prison. And yet he'd given her this chance.

__

I'm not going to let you down, Alex -- I promise.

~*~

Jen sat at the window, staring sightlessly out over the Silverhills skyline.

Alex was dead.

Three words.

Alex was dead.

It hadn't hit her at the time -- there had been other things she needed to think about -- but now she was home there was nothing else to think about.

Alex was dead.

And Jen didn't know how she felt. Even when she'd been angry with him...even when she realised the magnitude of his lie to her -- when he'd finally told both her and Wes the truth about their relationship -- she had assumed that he'd still be **there**. Like he'd always been. Friend, confidant, older brother. Even knowing what he'd done, she hadn't wanted that to change, although she knew it would have taken time for their relationship to resume on that level.

Time she didn't have any more.

Alex was dead.

And, she realised, she was alive. Thanks to him. Thanks to him several times over, and not least by what he'd done three days earlier.

She had feared it had been his ultimate way of committing suicide -- his ultimate escape from his guilt and from the mess he'd made of his own life. Wes had put her mind at ease on that point.

__

"There was nothing anyone could have done that would have prevented Alex's death," Wes had explained when they were finally alone together. _"If the four of us had gone charging in..."_ Wes had trailed off and shaken his head. _"Alex must have known that and chose to go down fighting."_

Alex was dead, but life had to go on.

It would just take a little while.

~*~

Lucas studied the game of chess set up before him, but his mind was elsewhere.

"You want to talk about it?" Danny asked.

"Hm?" Lucas looked up.

Max, who was watching the chess match, snickered.

Danny offered him a smile. "You want to talk about it?" he repeated.

Lucas managed a faint smirk. "Well I'm not doing much good playing chess."

Max snickered again. "Considering how many games you've lost today, no."

Lucas pushed his king over, conceding the game. "I can't believe it's happened."

Danny didn't even pretend to misunderstand. This wasn't about chess. "What happened on Tuesday or what followed it?"

"Bit of both, I guess. Would it sound bad if I said it was mostly what followed it?" Danny shook his head. Lucas sighed. "Guess that doesn't stop me from feeling guilty."

Danny smiled wryly. "Human nature."

Lucas snorted. "No shit." He shook his head. "I still can't believe he did it. I didn't think he liked me!"

"Liking someone and knowing they're a good officer don't have a hell of a lot to do with each other," Taylor contributed, coming to sit down at the table. "Look at it this way," she continued, "he wouldn't have put your name forward for the position if you couldn't do it, and you wouldn't have been promoted into it if the selection committee -- or however it works -- hadn't agreed with the recommendation."

Lucas knew Taylor was right, and yet... "But me? As head of a whole department? Heck," he added, "I'm barely twenty-five and I'm suddenly supposed to order guys who've been in the force twice the length of time I have around?"

"You'll be fine," Danny assured him.

"Besides," Trip put in as he joined the group, "look on the bright side."

"And what bright side would **that** be?" Lucas wanted to know.

"You have Marissa, Nadira and me to help you."

~*~

__

I should have found a better way to tell her, Shayla found herself thinking as she pressed a cool washcloth against Katie's forehead, helping her to recover from the faint.

"Were you serious?" Katie whispered. "I'm pregnant?"

Shayla nodded. "Yes."

"I can't be...I..." Katie swallowed. "It's not possible. People from my time...don't get pregnant. Not without intervention...I just...I can't!"

Shayla smiled in sympathy. "Miracles happen, Katie."

"But is this one?" Tears were starting to roll down her face. "I can't do it..." Shayla noted that Katie's arm was curled protectively around her still flat stomach in a protective gesture she doubted the other woman was even aware of. "I can't...not on my own."

Shayla wrapped her arms around the other woman. "Alex may be gone, but you have a part of him forever, both in your child and in your heart."

"But I'm alone," Katie sobbed. "He left me..."

"You are not alone," Shayla murmured softly. "You have your friends."

~*~

Eric tossed down his pen in disgust.

He hadn't liked Alex...

...but he did respect and understand him. And he could admit -- to himself, if to no-one else -- that Alex's actions on that Tuesday morning had been the actions of a man who could only be described one way now: A hero.

Hero.

It wasn't a word he used lightly, but how else could you describe a man who had, quite literally, saved billions of lives? Alex might have had some contemptible character traits in life, but they were far outweighed by the good that he had done with one single, unquestionably brave, cool-headed act.

Eric shook his head and picked up his phone. Dialling home was an alien concept to him in most respects, having lived alone for so long, and yet he'd already grown used to knowing there would be someone there.

And in a backhanded way, that was down to Alex, too.

Eric was still smiling wryly about that when Kimberly answered, "Hello?"

"Hey..."

"Eric!" He found himself smiling, hearing the smile in her voice. "What's up?"

He rubbed the back of his neck feeling slightly sheepish. "Just...reminding myself how lucky I am."

~*~

Shayla felt Katie's sobs easing and gradually released her embrace.

"Do you want to be alone for a little spell?" Shayla asked.

"I...need to talk to Jen," Katie answered with a gulp.

Shayla nodded, smiling a little. "Then, I will go and find her. In the meantime, there are some clothes and washing materials here -- so that you can freshen up." She got to her feet, intending to leave the room, but Katie stopped her.

"Thank you."

Shayla smiled. "It will be all right, Katie -- I feel sure of it."

~*~

Wes put the phone down.

"Who was it?" Jen called from the living room.

"Taylor," he replied. "Katie's awake -- and wants to speak to you." He walked through into the living room in time to see Jen ease herself off the window seat. "OK?"

She smiled. "I'm fine -- don't you dare go all overprotective on me. It'll be bad enough when Eric finds out!"

Wes laughed. "You think he's gonna mother hen?"

"And you don't?" Jen retorted.

"Point." Wes' laughter died away. "Taylor also said that tonight would be the memorial -- if we were ready for it."

Jen nodded. "That would make sense. It's time we let go. Life goes on."

Wes pulled her into a gentle embrace, one hand finding its way down so that he could touch her belly. "Yes it does."

~*~

Alyssa sighed, no nearer to a conclusion about her troubles.

"That sounds serious," observed a voice.

Alyssa's head jerked up and to her surprise, she found herself looking at Merrick. She squeaked his name in surprise.

Merrick looked a little amused. "Am I not allowed to be here too?"

Alyssa ducked her head in embarrassment. "I'm sorry -- you just startled me."

"Sorry. But I had spoken your name several times already. What has you so deep in thought?" A knowing look crossed Merrick's face. "Tuesday's events, perhaps?"

Alyssa nodded. "I just..."

"Didn't truly realise how dangerous being a ranger could be?" Merrick suggested. Alyssa nodded dumbly. "You're unsure if you can do it in the face of that realisation," he continued shrewdly.

"I'm such a coward," Alyssa mumbled.

"Not in the least," Merrick retorted. "No-one wishes to stare death in the face and have it stare so boldly back. No-one likes being reminded they're mortal."

Alyssa shivered. "No."

"And right now," he continued, "you're not sure if you can do this. Constantly stare death in the face and have it stare back at you. But," he added, "can you stand back and allow Master Org be unopposed?"

"No!" Alyssa felt outraged by the concept, almost in spite of herself.

"Then you already have your answer," said Merrick, a small smile gracing his face.

Alyssa ducked her head again. "I guess I do."

"It'll be OK," said Cole, materialising out of the trees.

"How much of that did you hear?" Alyssa asked, suddenly feeling embarrassed all over again.

Cole offered her his hand. "Does it matter?"

Alyssa looked from Cole's open, honest expression to Merrick's more closed but no less honest one. Neither of them held it against her that she'd had doubts. 

"I guess it doesn't."

~*~

Ben shuffled papers around the desk. Tomorrow he would be back out on traffic duty. A more mundane task he couldn't have wished for.

And the prospect was certainly not enough to wipe away the memory of what he'd seen.

He'd seen more gory deaths than Alex's had been. He'd lost close friends before -- and Alex was barely even an acquaintance.

So why was it bothering him?

__

Because it was for you -- and for everyone in this building...this town...this state. He gave up his life so that people who'd never even know he existed could continue to bitch about their grey little lives.

Ben sighed and gave up the pretence at work.

__

Because you don't know that you could have done the same thing in his position.

That was the heart of the matter. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that Eric, Kimberly, Wes, Jen, Taylor -- they'd have all done what Alex did. But could he have done?

Would he have had the courage?

The office door opened, bringing Ben to the here and now with a start. He looked up and found Eric standing in the doorway.

"Boss?" Ben said.

"Max has just phoned," Eric replied. "We're going to hold the memorial service for Alex tonight. You want to come?"

Ben blinked. "Me? But I..."

"Have as much right to be there as anyone else," Eric stated.

"I'm not so sure I do," Ben replied. "I'm not sure I'm..."

Eric snorted. "Bullshit," he said flatly, cutting Ben off.

"I mean it...I..." Ben studied his desk. "I couldn't have done what Alex did."

"Couldn't you?" Eric answered.

"I wouldn't have had the guts."

"Yes you would have." Eric's words were firm. "No-one knows when they're going to face that test. No-one knows when they're going to be called a hero. And no-one believes the can do it until it happens. Not me, not you -- not Alex."

"But I..."

"Lemme ask you something," Eric cut in. "Kim was telling me about the first battle with the Mutorgs -- when Wes and Jen showed up. She told me about how she thought she was toast; one of the Mutorgs had her down and was poised to strike when it was distracted. How would you class going into a fight, **knowing** your only weapon isn't going to be any use against your enemy and then firing on one of the enemy, drawing its attention away from its potential victim to you?"

Ben's jaw loosened and dropped open. For a full minute, he could think of nothing to say before finally managing, "It was the right thing to do."

Eric just gave the half-smile/half-smirk expression that Ben had seen frequently when Eric knew he was right about something. "You faced that test and you passed." Eric turned to leave. "Are you coming to the Animarium?"

Still stunned, Ben finally nodded. "Yeah -- maybe I should."

~*~

Katie was just straightening the borrowed blouse when a knock came on the door of the room.

"Katie?"

She swallowed before saying, "I'm in here, Jen." Slowly she turned to face the doorway as Jen entered.

"Hey." Jen smiled. "How're you doing?"

Katie opened her mouth to say something light and easy but her throat closed over. Without hesitation, Jen closed the distance between them and drew her into a tight embrace.

"Let it out," she murmured softly. "Cry it out."

"He's gone..." Katie found herself sobbing. "He's gone and..."

"I know."

"And I'm pregnant...and alone...and I can't believe this is happening to me."

Katie felt Jen stiffen.

"You're pregnant?" Jen echoed. "Is it..." Before Katie could truly realise what Jen was saying, she was enveloped in a near crushing hug. "Oh Katie..."

"You...you're not mad?" Katie gulped.

Jen pulled away slightly and met Katie's tear-stained gaze. "Mad? Why would I be?"

"Because Alex is...was...your..."

Jen shook her head. "You listen to me, Katherine Elizabeth Walker," she said fiercely. "Don't ever think that. Both you and Alex are my friends, regardless of anything else, and all I want is for you guys to be happy. And if that was together..."

Katie nodded, not trusting her voice.

"Oh Katie...I'm sorry." Jen tightened the embrace once more. "It'll be OK," she murmured as Katie started to sob again.

"It'll never be OK."

"It does get better, Kittie -- it doesn't stop hurting but it does get better."

Katie hiccupped. "And somewhere...he's probably laughing at me for this."

Jen pulled away to once more meet her gaze, this time with a smile. "Not Alex. Never Alex." From her pocket, she produced a clean handkerchief. "Here."

Katie hiccupped again. "I must...look a state."

Jen shook her head. "It's all right to cry; it's all right to grieve. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. Grams was right about that."

"I know."

"Give yourself time. And don't forget you have your friends. Lucas, Trip, Nadira -- heck," she added, "Wes, Eric, Kim and I are only a comm. call away."

Katie sniffed and nodded. "I know." 

She started to dab ineffectively at her tears with the handkerchief, only to find her hand gently batted away by Jen who had produced a damp washcloth. "Here, let me."

Meekly Katie submitted to her friend's ministrations.

"So what happens now?" Katie finally asked as Jen finished.

"Well," came the reply, "now that you're physically better, you, Lucas, Trip and Nadira will be going back to the future. Then what happens after that is up to you."

"What about..." Katie swallowed. "A memorial?"

"Tonight -- if you think you can face it?"

Katie turned the thought over in her mind. She could say she wasn't ready for it and her friends would abide by that. But she knew that by doing so would rob those who lived in this time of a chance to say good-bye.

"They know what to do?" Katie asked quietly.

Jen nodded. "Lucas told them."

Katie nodded. Voice barely above a whisper she said, "Then tonight it is."

~*~

In the temple courtyard, everyone was silent.

The six Wild Force rangers with Shayla, Nadira and Ben formed a semi circle around one side of the glowing fire pit while around the other side, the six Time Force rangers with the addition of Kimberly formed a second semi circle. From left to right, Kimberly, Eric, Lucas, Jen, Trip, Wes and Katie, each with a small handful of powdered roots.

Finally, Kimberly took a step forward. "What does it take to be a hero?" She dropped her powder into the fire and as the flames burned amethyst in colour, she stepped back.

Eric followed. "What does it take to be a man?" He dropped his handful into the fire. This time the flames were garnet hued.

Lucas took his turn. "You always there, always beside me." His handful of powder turned the flames a rich sapphire colour.

Jen stepped forward. "Holding my hand, every step of the way." She released her powder into the flames, turning them a brilliant tourmaline.

Trip took her place. "Through these eyes -- you could do no wrong." Emerald flames burned as he returned to his place.

Wes followed. "In these eyes -- you were brave and strong." He stepped back, releasing his powder and turning the flames ruby red.

Finally Katie stepped up to the pit. "In my heart -- those days live on." As she dropped her powder into the flames, turning them a dazzling topaz, a tear slid down her cheek. "I miss you, Alex."

__

TO BE CONCLUDED IN

BEGINNING'S END AND YOU HAD ME FROM HELLO...

~*~

The End Credits

As ever, a lot of people have helped in the writing of this story who deserve special mention, so in no particular order:

Vanessa -- a wonderful sounding board and a demon on my non-standard punctuation (!!)

Chris -- who has read much of this and offered plenty of advice, encouragement and feedback, not to mention spotted where I've made glaring errors.

Ree -- who has permitted me to bounce this off her and has continued my education in Americanisms

Gamine -- a friend, an advice bureau, a beta reader, above all, a wonderful human being

Thank you all -- I could do it without you, but it wouldn't be half as fun, and it certainly wouldn't be as good.

Lastly, thank you to you the readers. I was wary of this story and nervous of posting it, but you guys set my mind at ease with your feedback.

Three weeks, 25000 words -- the final book in the Identiverse is complete. 


End file.
